The highly expressed tapetum-specific A9 gene is not required for male fertility in Brassica napus

• Published in: Plant molecular biology Vol. 24; no. 1; pp. 97 - 104
• Main Authors: Turgut, K. (Leicester Univ. (United Kingdom). Dept. of Botany), Barsby, T, Craze, M, Freeman, J, Hodge, R, Paul, W, Scott, R
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Dordrecht Springer 01-01-1994
• Subjects: ANTERA; ANTHERE; ANTHERS; Arabidopsis Proteins; ARN MENSAJERO; ARN MESSAGER; Base Sequence; Biological and medical sciences; Biotechnology; Blotting, Northern; Brassica - genetics; BRASSICA NAPUS; Cloning, Molecular; DNA; DNA, Antisense; EXPRESION GENICA; EXPRESSION DES GENES; FERTILIDAD; FERTILITE; FERTILITY; Fertility - genetics; Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology; GENE; GENE EXPRESSION; GENES; Genes, Plant; MESSENGER RNA; Molecular and cellular biology; Molecular genetics; Molecular Sequence Data; Plant Proteins - genetics; Plants, Genetically Modified; POLEN; POLLEN; Pollen - genetics; Polymerase Chain Reaction; Promoter Regions, Genetic; Anther; Male; Antisense RNA; Gene expression; Oil plant(vegetal); Messenger RNA; Complementary DNA; Cruciferae; Fertility; Dicotyledones; Angiospermae; Brassica napus; Transgenic plant; Spermatophyta; Pollen; Microsporogenesis; Hybrid gene
• ISSN: 0167-4412; 1573-5028
• DOI: 10.1007/BF00040577

An antisense approach was used to attempt to determine the function of the highly abundant, tapetum-specific A9 transcript in microsporogenesis. A Brassica napus A9 cDNA clone was linked in sense and antisense orientations to the Arabidopsis thaliana A9 promoter and the resulting chimaeric genes introduced into B. napus. A high proportion of the offspring of B. napus antisense A9 plants had very low or undetectable levels of A9 mRNA. However, these plants set seed and had pollen of normal or near normal viability. Therefore, under the conditions studied, the A9 protein appears not to be essential for male fertility in B. napus.