A barley PHD finger transcription factor that confers male sterility by affecting tapetal development. Issue 6 (29th March 2014)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Fernández Gómez, José; Wilson, Zoe A.
• Is Part Of: Plant biotechnology journal. Volume 12:Issue 6(2014:Aug.)
• Page Start: 765
• Page End: 777
• Publication Date: 2014-03-29
• Subjects: Plant biotechnology -- Periodicals; Plant genetic engineering -- Periodicals; 630.272
• DOI: 10.1111/pbi.12181
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1467-7644

Abstract

<abstract abstract-type="main" id="pbi12181-abs-0001"> <title>Summary</title> <p>Controlling pollen development is of major commercial importance in generating hybrid crops and selective breeding, but characterized genes for male sterility in crops are rare, with no current examples in barley. However, translation of knowledge from model species is now providing opportunities to understand and manipulate such processes in economically important crops. We have used information from regulatory networks in <italic>Arabidopsis</italic> to identify and functionally characterize a barley PHD transcription factor <italic>MALE STERTILITY1</italic> (<italic>MS1</italic>), which expresses in the anther tapetum and plays a critical role during pollen development. Comparative analysis of <italic>Arabidopsis</italic>, rice and <italic>Brachypodium</italic> genomes was used to identify conserved regions in <italic>MS1</italic> for primer design to amplify the barley <italic>MS1</italic> gene; RACE‐PCR was subsequently used to generate the full‐length sequence. This gene shows anther‐specific tapetal expression, between late tetrad stage and early microspore release. <italic>HvMS1</italic> silencing and overexpression in barley resulted in male sterility. Additionally, <italic>HvMS1</italic> cDNA, controlled by the native <italic>Arabidopsis MS1</italic> promoter, successfully complemented the homozygous <italic>ms1 Arabidopsis</italic> mutant. These results confirm the conservation of <italic>MS1</italic> function in higher plants and in particular in temperate cereals. This has provided the first example of a characterized male sterility gene in barley, which presents a valuable tool for the future control of male fertility in barley for hybrid development.</p> </abstract>