The maize aberrant pollen transmission 1 gene is a SABRE/KIP homolog required for pollen tube growth

Maize (Zea mays) pollen tribes grow in the styles at a rate of >1 mu m/sec. We describe here a gene required to attain that striking rate. The aberrant pollen transmission 1 (apt1) gene of maize was identified by an Ac-tagged imitation that displayed a severe pollen transmission deficit in heterozygotes. Rare apt1 homozygotes can be recovered, aided by phenotypic selection for Ac homozygotes. Half of the pollen in heterozygotes and most of the pollen in homozygotes germinate short and twisted pollen tribes. The apt1 gene is 26 kb long, snakes an 8.6-kb pollen-specific transcript spliced froth 22 exons, and encodes a protein of 2607 amino acids. The APT1 protein is homologous to SABRE and KIP, Arabidopsis proteins of unknown function involved in the elongation of root cortex cells and pollen tribes, respectively. Subcellular localization analysis demonstrates that APT1 colocalizes with a Golgi protein marker in growing tobacco pollen tubes. We hypothesize that the APT1 protein is involved in membrane trafficking and is required for the high secretory demands of tip growth in pollen tubes. The apt1-m1(Ac) mutable allele is an excellent tool for selecting Ac transpositions because of the strong negative selection pressure operating against the parental Ac site.