Abstract
In Arabidopsis (Arabidopsis thaliana), jasmonate is a key signal required for stamen and pollen maturation and thus for male fertility. Using transcriptional profiling, we have previously identified a set of 13 transcription factors that are proposed to be involved in controlling jasmonate responses in stamens. This finding suggests that a transcriptional cascade regulates the many developmental and biochemical pathways required to ensure fertility; however, the organization of this cascade is currently not understood. Here, we provide a genetic characterization of the role of MYB108 and map its relationship to MYB21 and MYB24, two other transcription factors involved in the jasmonate response in Arabidopsis stamens. Transcriptional profiling and analysis of plants expressing a MYB108:GUS fusion protein demonstrated that MYB108 expression is largely confined to sporophytic tissues of the stamen. Three allelic myb108 mutants exhibited reduced male fertility that was associated with delayed anther dehiscence, reduced pollen viability, and decreased fecundity relative to wild type. These phenotypes were all found to be exacerbated in myb108 myb24 double mutants, which also had shorter stamen filaments. Measurements of MYB108 transcript levels in wild-type and mutant flowers showed that expression of this gene is strongly dependent on MYB21. Taken together, our results indicate that MYB108 and MYB24 have overlapping functions and act downstream of MYB21 in a transcriptional cascade that mediates stamen and pollen maturation in response to jasmonate.