Arabidopsis Rho-related GTPases: Differential gene expression in pollen and polar localization in fission yeast

The Rho small CTP-binding proteins are versatile, conserved molecular switches in eukaryotic signal transduction. Plants contain a unique subfamily of Rho-GTPases called Pop (Rho-related GTPases from plants). Our previous studies involving injection of antibodies indicated that the pea Rop GTPase Rop1Ps is critical for pollen tube growth. In this study we show that overexpression of an apparent Arabidopsis ortholog of Rop1Ps, Rop1At, induces isotropic cell growth in fission yeast (Schizosaccharomyces pombe) and that green fluorescence protein-tagged Rop1At displays polar localization to the site of growth in yeast. We found that Rop1At and two other Arabidopsis Pops, Rop3At and Rop5At, are all expressed in mature pollen. All three pollen Pops fall into the same subgroup as Rop1Ps and diverge from those Rops that are not expressed in mature pollen, suggesting a coupling of the structural conservation of Pop GTPases to their gene expression in pollen. However, pollen-specific transcript accumulation for Rop1At is much higher than that for Rop3At and Rop5At. Furthermore, Rop1At is specifically expressed in anthers, whereas Rop3At and Rop5At are also expressed in vegetative tissues. In transgenic plants containing the Rop1At promoter:GUS fusion gene, GUS is specifically expressed in mature pollen and pollen tubes. We propose that Rop1At may play a predominant role in the regulation of polarized cell growth in pollen, whereas its close relatives Rop3At and Rop5At may be functionally redundant to Rop1At in pollen.