Prof. Lijia Qu published a paper on Science.
Reproductive isolation is the inability of a species to breed with a related species and thus is key to the formation and evolution of a new plant species. Within the genus Arabidopsis, pistils of A. thaliana can be fertilized by pollen of related species, such as A. lyrata, but conspecific (self) pollen is preferred to maintain reproductive isolation. The molecular mechanisms by which the plant’s own pollen tubes outperform heterospecific (alien) pollen tubes is largely unknown. In A. thaliana, maternal cysteine-rich peptides AtLURE1.1 to -1.5, secreted from the ovule, were reported to function through the male receptor PRK6 to mediate pollen tube attraction.
Original link: https://science.sciencemag.org/content/364/6443/eaau9564
