Morph-specific proteins in pollen and styles of distylous turnera (Turneraceae)

We used nondenaturing isoelectric focusing (IEF) in a survey of plants from 11 populations to identify style and pollen proteins unique to the short-styled morph of Turnera scabra, T. sulnitata and T. krapovickasii. Three protein bands [approximately isoelectric points (pls) 6.1, 6.3 and 6.5] were found only in styles and stigmas of short-styled plants while two bands (approximately pls 6.7 and 6.8, M(r) 56 and 59 kD) occur only in pollen of short-styled plants. Some of these bands appear very late in development, within 24 hr before flowering. Two isozyme loci were mapped to an 8.7 cM region spanning the distyly locus. Using these isozyme markers we identified progeny exhibiting recombination adjacent to the distyly locus. No recombinants between the distyly locus and the locus or loci controlling the presence of the short-styled morph-specific proteins were obtained. This suggest that the loci encoding these proteins are either extremely tightly linked to the distyly locus and in complete disequilibrium with the S allele or exhibit morph-limited expression. Crosses to a plant showing an unusual style protein phenotype demonstrated that an additional unlinked locus is required for full expression of the style proteins. The function of the morph-specific proteins is unknown.