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Understanding the molecular mechanism of anther development under abiotic stresses

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The developmental stage of anther development is generally more sensitive to abiotic stress than other stages of growth. Specific ROS levels, plant hormones and carbohydrate metabolism are disturbed in anthers subjected to abiotic stresses.

Abstract

As sessile organisms, plants are often challenged to multiple extreme abiotic stresses, such as drought, heat, cold, salinity and metal stresses in the field, which reduce plant growth, productivity and yield. The development of reproductive stage is more susceptible to abiotic stresses than the vegetative stage. Anther, the male reproductive organ that generate pollen grains, is more sensitive to abiotic stresses than female organs. Abiotic stresses affect all the processes of anther development, including tapetum development and degradation, microsporogenesis and pollen development, anther dehiscence, and filament elongation. In addition, abiotic stresses significantly interrupt phytohormone, lipid and carbohydrate metabolism, alter reactive oxygen species (ROS) homeostasis in anthers, which are strongly responsible for the loss of pollen fertility. At present, the precise molecular mechanisms of anther development under adverse abiotic stresses are still not fully understood. Therefore, more emphasis should be given to understand molecular control of anther development during abiotic stresses to engineer crops with better crop yield.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the grants from Natural Science Foundation of Henan Provincial Science and Technology (No. 182300410063), Key Scientific Research Projects of Henan Higher Education Institutions (No. 18A180031), and Nanhu Scholars Program for Young Scholars of Xinyang Normal University.

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ZZ designed the outline of the article. ZZ and MH wrote the article. MH and WX prepared the figures. CZ, JW and HY participated in manuscript preparation and revision. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

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Correspondence to Zaibao Zhang.

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The authors declare that they have no competing interests.

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Zhang, Z., Hu, M., Xu, W. et al. Understanding the molecular mechanism of anther development under abiotic stresses. Plant Mol Biol 105, 1–10 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11103-020-01074-z

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11103-020-01074-z

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