TY - JOUR
T1 - Transgenerational conditioned male fertility of HD-ZIP IV transcription factor mutant ocl4
T2 - impact on 21-nt phasiRNA accumulation in pre-meiotic maize anthers
AU - Yadava, Pranjal
AU - Tamim, Saleh
AU - Zhang, Han
AU - Teng, Chong
AU - Zhou, Xue
AU - Meyers, Blake C.
AU - Walbot, Virginia
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2021, The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH, DE part of Springer Nature.
PY - 2021/6
Y1 - 2021/6
N2 - Key message: Maize Outer cell layer 4 (ocl4) encodes an HD-ZIP IV transcription factor required for robust male fertility and 21-nt phasiRNA biogenesis. ocl4 fertility is favored in warm conditions, and phasiRNAs are partially restored. Abstract: Environment-sensitive male-sterile plants have been described before and can result from different molecular mechanisms and biological processes, but putative environment-conditioned, transgenerational rescue of their male fertility is a rather new mystery. Here, we report a derivative line of the male-sterile outer cell layer 4 (ocl4) mutant of maize, in which fertility was restored and perpetuated over several generations. Conditioned fertile ocl4 anthers exhibit the anatomical abnormality of a partially duplicated endothecial layer, just like their sterile counterparts. We profiled the dynamics of phased, small interfering RNAs (phasiRNAs) during pre-meiotic development in fully sterile and various grades of semi-fertile ocl4 anthers. The conditioned fertile anthers accumulated significantly higher 21-nt phasiRNAs compared to ocl4 sterile samples, suggesting a partial restoration of phasiRNAs in conditioned fertility. We found that the biogenesis of 21-nt phasiRNAs is largely dependent on Ocl4 at three key steps: (1) production of PHAS precursor transcripts, (2) expression of miR2118 that modulates precursor processing, and (3) accumulation of 21-nt phasiRNAs.
AB - Key message: Maize Outer cell layer 4 (ocl4) encodes an HD-ZIP IV transcription factor required for robust male fertility and 21-nt phasiRNA biogenesis. ocl4 fertility is favored in warm conditions, and phasiRNAs are partially restored. Abstract: Environment-sensitive male-sterile plants have been described before and can result from different molecular mechanisms and biological processes, but putative environment-conditioned, transgenerational rescue of their male fertility is a rather new mystery. Here, we report a derivative line of the male-sterile outer cell layer 4 (ocl4) mutant of maize, in which fertility was restored and perpetuated over several generations. Conditioned fertile ocl4 anthers exhibit the anatomical abnormality of a partially duplicated endothecial layer, just like their sterile counterparts. We profiled the dynamics of phased, small interfering RNAs (phasiRNAs) during pre-meiotic development in fully sterile and various grades of semi-fertile ocl4 anthers. The conditioned fertile anthers accumulated significantly higher 21-nt phasiRNAs compared to ocl4 sterile samples, suggesting a partial restoration of phasiRNAs in conditioned fertility. We found that the biogenesis of 21-nt phasiRNAs is largely dependent on Ocl4 at three key steps: (1) production of PHAS precursor transcripts, (2) expression of miR2118 that modulates precursor processing, and (3) accumulation of 21-nt phasiRNAs.
KW - Conditioned fertility
KW - Maize
KW - Male sterility
KW - Ocl4
KW - PhasiRNA
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85102427157&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1007/s00497-021-00406-3
DO - 10.1007/s00497-021-00406-3
M3 - Article
C2 - 33689028
AN - SCOPUS:85102427157
SN - 2194-7953
VL - 34
SP - 117
EP - 129
JO - Plant Reproduction
JF - Plant Reproduction
IS - 2
ER -