Self-incompatibility

Self-incompatibility is a genetically controlled recognition system in flowering plants that blocks fertilization when pollen is too genetically similar to the plant receiving it.

S-locus: A genomic region containing genes that determine self-incompatibility specificity in many flowering plants. Its alleles encode the matching identities used to recognize pollen and pistils.
Flowering plant: A plant that produces flowers and encloses its seeds within fruits. Self-incompatibility is a reproductive strategy found across flowering plants.
Plant mating systems: Patterns governing how plants reproduce through self-fertilization, outcrossing, or both. Self-incompatibility is one genetic means of enforcing outcrossing.
Hybrid seed production: The production of seed from controlled crosses between genetically distinct parent lines. Self-incompatibility can prevent parent plants from selfing during hybrid seed production.
Pollen-pistil interaction: The sequence of events through which pollen interacts with a flower’s stigma and style. Self-incompatibility operates during this broader recognition and pollen-growth process.
Allele: One of several alternative forms of a gene at a particular genomic location. Different S-locus alleles encode distinct recognition specificities.
Evolution of self-incompatibility: The evolutionary emergence and diversification of genetic systems that prevent self-fertilization. Its history connects pollen recognition to selection against inbreeding.
Brassica self-incompatibility: A sporophytic self-incompatibility system studied and used in Brassica crops. Its well-characterized system provides a practical route to controlled outcrossing.
S-RNase-based self-incompatibility: A gametophytic self-incompatibility system in which pistil S-RNases inhibit incompatible pollen tubes. This pathway shows how a pistil can selectively stop pollen tube growth.
Genetic polymorphism: The coexistence of multiple genetic variants in a population at appreciable frequencies. Self-incompatibility depends on populations maintaining many distinct recognition alleles.

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