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Conference abstract, 2004

The transcript profile of cytoplasmic male sterile Brassica napus

Carlsson, Jenny; Leino, Matti; Teixeira, Rita; Lagercrantz, Ulf; Glimelius, Kristina

Abstract

Floral organ development is influenced by nuclear-mitochondrial interactions. This is demonstrated by cytoplasmic male sterility (CMS), a maternally inherited trait manifested as inhibited pollen production. In addition, homeotic-like conversions of the anthers into carpel-like structures with ovules and stigmas are often observed in CMS-plants. CMS-lines derived from B. napus (+) A. thaliana somatic hybrids, which have been produced in our laboratory, display the aberrations described above, a phenotype very similar to ap3/pi mutants in A. thaliana. RFLP analysis has shown that the nuclear and plastid genome consist of B. napus DNA, while mitochondria contained rearranged DNA from both A. thaliana and B. napus with frequent rearrangements. The transcriptome of the CMS-line was compared to fertile B. napus on cDNA microarrays. The results from these investigation showed that 89 genes displayed a different expression in the CMS-line in comparison to B. napus. Several of these genes are involved in stamen and pollen formation. They displayed a lower expression in the CMS-line compared to fertile B. napus. The opposite is true for genes involved in gynoecia formation. In accordance with the phenotype the AP3 and PI expression is reduced in the CMS-line. Two mitochondrial genes (orf139 and atp9) have a much higher expression in the CMS-line compared to B. napus. Furthermore, two mitochondrial processing-peptidases displayed a lower expression. These enzymes are nuclearly encoded and they also function as the Core 1 and 2 proteins of the cytochrome bc1 complex. Several pectinesterase and polygalacturonase genes displayed a lower expression in the CMS-line in comparison to B. napus. Some of these genes are pollen specific according to previous studies. This result indicates a link between the mitochondria and the two nuclear encoded B-genes, since the CMS-phenotype is due to aberrations in nuclear-mitochondrial interactions. In the poster we will discuss further as well as some of the other genes

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Conference

15th International Conference on Arabidopsis Research, Berlin