Examination of S-Locus Regulated Differential Expression in Primula vulgaris Floral Development

Recent findings on the molecular basis of heteromorphic self-incompatibility in Primula have shown that the controlling self-incompatibility (S)-locus is not allelic, but is instead a small hemizygous region of only a few genes in the thrum genotype. How these genes alter the development of floral morphology and the specificity of self-incompatibility is still not completely clear. In order to start to identify genes regulated by the S-locus and elucidate the large-scale biological processes affected, we used RNA-seq data from floral buds of heteromorphic P. vulgaris pin (long style, short anthers) and thrum (short style, long anthers) morphs at early and late developmental time points. Differential expression between the two morphs was assessed at both time points and Gene Ontology term analyses of these gene sets were conducted. Our findings suggest that the S-locus regulates a large number of genes outside its physical bounds and likely sets up a cascade of expression changes. Additionally, we found evidence to suggest that there may be a timing difference in pollen development between the morphs, with pin pollen development proceeding earlier than thrum pollen development. This finding provides insight into how morphological differences in pollen between the morphs may be established, but intriguingly, could also be related to the self-incompatibility phenotype.