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Triticeae Genomics and Genetics
TGG 2010, Vol.1, No.1
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Research Article Open Access
RAPD Analysis on Variation of Mitochondrial DNA for Cytoplasmic-Nuclear
Male Sterile Lines in Wheat
Wenqiang Li , Gaisheng Zhang , Na Niu , Fang Wei , Kui Wang , Dongliang Pan
Key Laboratory of Crop Heterosis of Shaanxi Province, Northwest Agricultural & Forest University, Yangling, 712100
Corresponding author email: zhanggsh@public.xa.sn.cn;
Authors
Triticeae Genomics and Genetics 2010, Vol.1 No.1 DOI:
10.5376/tgg.2010.01.0001
Received: 4 Apr., 2009
Accepted: 27 Apr., 2009
Published: 28 May, 2009
This article was first published in the Molecular Plant Breeding (Regular Print Version), and here was authorized to redistribute under the
terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided
the original work is properly cited.
Preferred citation for this article as:
Li et al, 2009, RAPD Analysis on Variation of Mitochondrial DNA for Cytoplasmic-Nuclear Male Sterile Lines in Wheat, Molecular Plant Breeding, 7(3):
490-496
Abstract
In order to produce a good F1 hybrid variety in wheat, it is necessary to explore a new male-sterile cytoplasm and its
nuclear restore gene(s). Four alloplasmic male sterile lines of wheat with Aegilops cytoplasm were developed to identify
mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) variation that could potentially be associated with cytoplasmic male sterility (CMS). mtDNA isolated
from the Aegilops species, the respective male sterile lines and F1 hybrids were analyzed by RAPD markers. Reproducible
polymorphisms were detected between the Aegilops species and male sterile lines. Above results indicated that mtDNA variation
existed in the cytoplasm donors and male sterile lines resulted from genetic interactions between common wheat nucleus and
Aegilops cytoplasm, and have affected the structure of the mitochondrial genome. Similar results were also obtained in male sterile
lines and fertility-restored F1 hybrids. These demonstrated the variation of mtDNA in fertility restoration by the combination of the
fertility restorer gene(s), and fertility restoration involved a strong influence of nuclear restorer genes on mtDNA organization. The
variation of mtDNA inAegilops species, their respective CMS lines and fertility-restored F1 hybrids may reflect the fertility divergence.
Keywords
Aegilops
, Wheat, Cytoplasmic male sterility, mtDNA, RAPD markers
Background
Cytoplasmic male sterility (CMS) is a very important
trait for improving yield and quality of crops to meet
the needs of increasing population in the world. In
some well-studied species, the trait appears to be
associated with mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA)
mutations that disrupts mitochondrial function at a
critical stage of anther development, thus causing
male sterility (Hanson, 1991; Breiman and Galun,
1990; Mackenzie et al., 1994). Molecular studies
between sterile and fertile plants have revealed
variations in the restriction pattern of mtDNA and
mitochondrial transcripts and proved that differences
existed at the molecular level (Levings and Pring,
1976; Song and Hedgcoth, 1994). Alterations of
specific mitochondrial genes and inserts have been
identified (Song and Hedgcoth, 1994). Moreover, the
combination of nucleus and cytoplasm from different
plant species often leads to the CMS trait indicating
that the sterility might probably be caused by
functional incompatibility between the nuclear and
mitochondrial genomes (Kofer et al., 1991). The
nuclear loci suppressing the mitochondrial defects and
restoring male fertility was reported as well (Hanson
and Bentolila, 2004). The comparison of fertile and
CMS plants provides a rare opportunity to examine
the developmental regulation of mitochondrial
function as well as the influence of nuclear
background on mitochondrial gene expression. To
identify the mtDNA sequences affecting the CMS trait,
the general strategy was applied to compare
cytoplasmic genomes in fertile and male sterile plants.
Unfortunately, with a few exceptions, the comparative
genomics strategy has mostly been unsuccessful
(Hanson
and
Bentolila,
2004).
mtDNA
polymorphisms in CMS line and maintainer line often
reflects the evolutionary divergence and have no
correlation with CMS trait. Therefore, to compare