Fertilization and wounding of the style induce the expression of a highly conserved plant gene homologous to a Plasmodium falciparum surface antigen in the wild potato Solanum chacoense Bitt.

Pistil tissues are actively involved in pollen tube growth and respond to the presence of the growing pollen tubes by modulating the expression of specific genes. Once fertilization has occurred, complex developmental programs lead to embryogenesis, ovary maturation, and seed set. In order to understand the early events that follow pollination and fertilization we have used a subtractive hybridization approach to characterize genes which are related to pollination and fertilization events. One cDNA clone isolated and named SPP30 (Solanum pollinated pistil) was found to share significant sequence identities with a Plasmodium falciparum (malaria parasite) surface antigen and a yeast gene of unknown function. Searches in recent EST databases also revealed that SPP30 homologues are found in both monocot and dicot species. The presence of this conserved gene in evolutionarily distant organisms such as yeast, Plasmodium, and plants suggests that it codes for an essential cellular function. This is also strengthened by its extremely high sequence conservation in both monocots and dicots where virtually all substitutions tolerated are conservative.