Abstract
Plant cytoplasmic male sterility (CMS) results from incompatibilities between the organellar and nuclear genomes and prevents self pollination, enabling hybrid crop breeding to increase yields1,2,3,4,5,6. The Wild Abortive CMS (CMS-WA) has been exploited in the majority of 'three-line' hybrid rice production since the 1970s, but the molecular basis of this trait remains unknown. Here we report that a new mitochondrial gene, WA352, which originated recently in wild rice, confers CMS-WA because the protein it encodes interacts with the nuclear-encoded mitochondrial protein COX11. In CMS-WA lines, WA352 accumulates preferentially in the anther tapetum, thereby inhibiting COX11 function in peroxide metabolism and triggering premature tapetal programmed cell death and consequent pollen abortion. WA352-induced sterility can be suppressed by two restorer-of-fertility (Rf) genes, suggesting the existence of different mechanisms to counteract deleterious cytoplasmic factors. Thus, CMS-related cytoplasmic-nuclear incompatibility is driven by a detrimental interaction between a newly evolved mitochondrial gene and a conserved, essential nuclear gene.
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Acknowledgements
We thank G. Zhang, X. Liu (South China Agricultural University) and Q. Qian (China National Rice Research Institute) for providing some rice materials, H. Pang for technical assistance (GIBH, CAS) and H. Ma (Fudan University), J.-M. Li (University of Michigan) and Z.-H. He (San Francisco State University) for critical reading of the manuscript. This work was supported by grants (2011CB100203/2013CBA01401, 31230052 and 2013CB126900) from the Ministry of Science and Technology of China and the National Natural Science Foundation of China to Y.-G.L.
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D.L. performed most of the experiments involving the CMS gene functions and mechanism. H.X. and Z.L. found the CMS gene and analyzed its expression. J.G. investigated the gene origin. H.L., L.C., C.F., M.B., N.Y. and Hong Wu conducted cytological observations. Hao Wu and C.J. did plant transformation. Q.Z. mapped the mRNA ends. H.Z. mapped the interaction domains. Y.C., S.Y., X.L., X.Z. and R.L. participated in the characterization of the genes. Y.-G.L. designed and supervised the study and wrote the manuscript. All of the authors discussed the results and commented on the manuscript.
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Luo, D., Xu, H., Liu, Z. et al. A detrimental mitochondrial-nuclear interaction causes cytoplasmic male sterility in rice. Nat Genet 45, 573–577 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1038/ng.2570
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/ng.2570
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