Format: ORAL

D. Blaine Marchant1,2

1 Department of Biology, Stanford University, Stanford, California, USA 2 Department of Biology, University of Missouri - St. Louis, St. Louis, Missouri, USA

The anther is the developmental housing of pollen of flowering plants. The meiotic cells from which pollen are derived must differentiate de novo from somatic anther cells and synchronously develop with the rest of the anther. Understanding the genes that underlie the proper differentiation, developmental landmarks, and functions of each anther cell type is fundamental to plant sciences. Here, we investigated the development of the somatic niche of the maize (Zea mays) anther using single-cell RNA-seq (scRNA-seq). We established the developmental trajectories of the somatic cell types from pre-meiosis to post-meiosis, identified putative marker genes for the cell types that previously lacked any known specific functions, and addressed the possibility that tapetal cells sequentially redifferentiate. Finally, we compared these results with anther scRNA-seq data from wheat (Triticum turgidum) to assess the evolutionary conservation of anther development. These results are essential for future analyses investigating male-sterile genotypes and the impact of environmental conditions on male fertility in flowering plants.