Abstract:

To confirm the key reason and stage of pomegranate female sterility and explore the role of
PgAGL11 for pomegranate female sterility，we investigated the key stage of pomegranate female sterility
as well as sequence characteristic and function of PgAGL11 using‘Tunisiruanzi’. The results of paraffin
section revealed that the key reason of pomegranate female sterility was ovule termination after the
formation of inner integument primordial. The key stage was when the flower bud vertical diameter
developed into 8.1–15.0 mm. The 696 bp coding sequence（CDS）of PgAGL11 was obtained by TA
cloning，which showed a high similarity with AGL11 in Arabidopsis thaliana. Transcription analysis
indicated the expression level of PgAGL11 in bisexual flowers was significantly higher than that in
functional male flowers during the flower bud vertical diameter was 8.1–15.0 mm（P < 0.05），the expression level of PgAGL11 in pistil was significantly higher than that in petal，calyx，seed，and pericarp
（P < 0.01），which indicated it’s crucial roles in pistil development. Furthermore，we induced the
PgAGL11 gene into Arabidopsis thaliana using a Agrobacterium-mediated transgenic method and
produced shortened stamen，smaller petal，thicker style，and elongated mastoid cells on the surface of
stigma phenotypes. The results confirmed the key reason and stage of pomegranate female sterility and the
important roles of PgAGL11 in pomegranate female sterility.

Key words: pomegranate, female, sterility, ovule, expression analysis, transgenic