THE OVERCOMING OF SELF-INCOMPATIBILITY BY ANDROECIUM AND

GYNOECIUM LECTINS OF LINUM PERENNE. L. IN INTRASPECIFIC AND

INTERSPECIFIC CROSSES
Hanna Levchuk 1, 2, Victor Lyakh1, Maria Manuela Ribeiro Costa2
1
Chair of Landscape Industry and Plant Genetics, Department of Biology,
Zaporizhzhya National University, Zaporizhzhya, Ukraine
2
BioSystems & Integrative Sciences Institute (BioISI), Plant Functional Biology Center,
University of Minho, Campus de Gualtar, 4710-057 Braga, Portugal
anna.levchuck@yandex.ua

Self-incompatibility is one of the major mechanisms by which flowering plants

prevent inbreeding. Most heterostyled species are self-incompatible and this is likely
an extra mechanism to promote outcrossing. Heterostyly is common in Linum genus.
This kind of flower dimorphism has long interested many researchers, including
Darwin, which has studied Linum perenne L., amongst others. However, a molecular
mechanism that is responsible for self-incompatibility in this species has not been
characterized. In addition, the mechanisms of self-incompatibility among
heterostyled species are similar to mechanisms of incompatibility in interspecific
crosses.
Our previous data with different Linum species has pointed out lectins as being
potentially involved in the signalling mechanism responsible for pollen recognition.
Therefore, we have extracted and purified glucose and galactose-specific lectins
(soluble, membrane and cell wall) from gynoecium and from androecium of longstyled and short-styled flowers. Both short-styled stigmas of L. perenne L. and long styled stigmas of L. narbonense L., L. squamulosum L. and L. tenue L. (before
pollination) were treated with solutions containing purified lectins from androecium
or from gynoecium of short-styled flowers or from long-styled flowers. Stigmas were
pollinated with pollen from short -styled flowers of L. perenne L. Pollen tube growth
was monitored using aniline blue.
In a self-incompatible cross (intraspecific cross) the pollen germinates but the
pollen tube growth is inhibited in the stigma, whereas in a compatible cross the pollen
tube reaches the ovary within two hours after pollination. Stigmas treated with both
membrane and cell wall galactose-specific lectins from either pistils or anthers of a
different flower morphs are able to fully overcome self-incompatibility, thus the
pollen tube grows normally and is able to reach the ovary, but the seeds were formed
only after the treatment by gynoecium lectins.
In interspecific crosses (L. narbonense (LS) L. perenne (SS), L. squamulosum
(LS) L. perenne (SS) and L. tenue (LS) L. perenne (SS)) the seeds were formed
only after the treatment by androecium lectins.
Our results indicate that lectins might have a role in signalling pathways
involved in pollen tube recognition and formed seeds in intraspecific and interspecific
crosses between Linum species.
Acknowledgments: We would like to thank the Portuguese Bank of Plant Germplasm (BPGV)
in Braga, Portugal for valuable technical assistance. This work was supported in part by Erasmus
Mundus Action 2 Project ELECTRA: Enhancing Learning in ENPI Countries through Clean (grant
ELEC1300501)