In higher plants the female germline is formed from the megaspore mother cell (MMC), a single cell in the pre-meiotic ovule. Previously, it was reported that mutants in RNA dependent DNA methylation - RdDM - pathway might be involved in restricting female germline to a single nucellus cell. We show that the DRM methyltransferase double mutant drm1drm2 also presents also presents ectopic enlarged cells, consistent with supernumerary MMC-like cells. In wild-type ovules MMC differentiation required SPOROCYTELESS/NOZZLE (SPL/NZZ), as demonstrated by the spl/nzz mutant failing to develop an MMC. We address the poorly understood upstream regulation of SPL/NZZ in ovules, showing that the RdDM pathway is important to restrict SPL/NZZ expression. In ago9, rdr6 and drm1drm2 mutants, SPL/NZZ is ectopically expressed, suggesting that the mutiple MMC-like cells observed might be due to the ectopic expression of SPL/NZZ. We show that the ovule identity gene SEEDSTICK, directly regulates the AGO9 and RDR6 expression in the ovule and therefore indirectly SPL/NZZ expression. A model is presented describing the network required to restrict SPL/NZZ expression to specify a single MMC.
The RNA dependent DNA methylation pathway is required to restrict SPOROCYTELESS/NOZZLE expression to specify a single female germ cell precursor in Arabidopsis / M.A. Mendes, R. Petrella, M. Cucinotta, E. Vignati, S. Gatti, S.C. Pinto, D.C. Bird, V. Gregis, H. Dickinson, M.R. Tucker, L. Colombo. - In: DEVELOPMENT. - ISSN 0950-1991. - dev.194274(2020). [Epub ahead of print]
Titolo: | The RNA dependent DNA methylation pathway is required to restrict SPOROCYTELESS/NOZZLE expression to specify a single female germ cell precursor in Arabidopsis |
Autori: | MIRANDA MENDES, MARTA ADELINA (Primo) PETRELLA, ROSANNA (Secondo) COLOMBO, LUCIA (Ultimo) (Corresponding) |
Parole Chiave: | Female Germline; MADS box; MMC; RdDM; SPOROCYTLESS; STK; |
Settore Scientifico Disciplinare: | Settore BIO/01 - Botanica Generale Settore BIO/11 - Biologia Molecolare |
Data di pubblicazione: | 2020 |
Rivista: | |
Tipologia: | Article (author) |
Data ahead of print / Data di stampa: | 6-nov-2020 |
Digital Object Identifier (DOI): | http://dx.doi.org/10.1242/dev.194274 |
Appare nelle tipologie: | 01 - Articolo su periodico |
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