Reference "RTS, a rice anther-specific gene is required for male fertility and its promoter sequence directs tissue-specific gene expression in different plant species"

Reference ID

11264

Title

RTS, a rice anther-specific gene is required for male fertility and its promoter sequence directs tissue-specific gene expression in different plant species

Source

Plant molecular biology, 2006, vol. , pp. -

Authors (9)

Luo-H	Lee-J-Y
Hu-Q	Nelson-Vasilchik-K
Eitas-T-K	Lickwar-C
Kausch-A-P	Chandlee-J-M
Hodges-T-K

Abstract

A tapetum-specific gene, RTS, has been isolated by differential screening of a
cDNA library from rice panicles. RTS is a unique gene in the rice genome. RNA
blot analysis and in situ hybridization indicates that this gene is
predominantly expressed in the anther's tapetum during meiosis and disappears
before anthesis. RTS has no introns and encodes a putative polypeptide of 94
amino acids with a hydrophobic N-terminal region. The nucleotide and deduced
amino acid sequence of the gene do not show significant homology to any known
sequences. However, a sequence in the promoter region, GAATTTGTTA, differs only
by one or two nucleotides from one of the conserved motifs in the promoter
region of two pollen-specific genes of tomato. Several other sequence motifs
found in other anther-specific promoters were also identified in the promoter of
the RTS gene. Transgenic and antisense RNA approaches revealed that RTS gene is
required for male fertility in rice. The promoter region of RTS, when fused to
the Bacillus amyloliquefaciens ribonuclease gene, barnase, or the antisense of
the RTS gene, is able to drive tissue-specific expression of both genes in rice,
creeping bentgrass (Agrostis stolonifera L.) and Arabidopsis, conferring male
sterility to the transgenic plants. Light and near-infrared confocal microscopy
of cross-sections through developing flowers of male-sterile transgenics shows
that tissue-specific expression of barnase or the antisense RTS genes interrupts
tapetal development, resulting in deformed non-viable pollen. These results
demonstrate a critical role of the RTS gene in pollen development in rice and
the versatile application of the RTS gene promoter in directing anther-specific
gene expression in both monocotyledonous and dicotyledonous plants, pointing to
a potential for exploiting this gene and its promoter for engineering male
sterility for hybrid production of various plant species.