Identification of two mutant JASON-RELATED genes associated with unreduced pollen production in potato.

Multiple QTLs control unreduced pollen production in potato. Two major-effect QTLs co-locate with mutant alleles of genes with homology to AtJAS, a known regulator of meiotic spindle orientation. In diploid potato the production of unreduced gametes with a diploid (2n) rather than a haploid (n) number of chromosomes has been widely reported.

Unequal contribution of two paralogous CENH3 variants in cowpea centromere function.

In most diploids the centromere-specific histone H3 (CENH3), the assembly site of active centromeres, is encoded by a single copy gene. Persistance of two CENH3 paralogs in diploids species raises the possibility of subfunctionalization. Here we analysed both CENH3 genes of the  diploid dryland crop cowpea.

A detached leaf assay for testing transient gene expression and gene editing in cowpea ( [L.] Walp.).

Background: The legume cowpea ( L.) is extensively grown in sub-Saharan Africa. Cowpea, like many legumes has proved recalcitrant to plant transformation.

The MATH-BTB Protein TaMAB2 Accumulates in Ubiquitin-Containing Foci and Interacts With the Translation Initiation Machinery in .

MATH-BTB proteins are known to act as substrate-specific adaptors of CUL3-based E3 ligases in the ubiquitin proteasome pathway. Their BTB domain binds to CUL3 scaffold proteins and the less conserved MATH domain targets a highly diverse collection of substrate proteins to promote their ubiquitination and subsequent degradation. In plants, a significant expansion of the MATH-BTB family occurred in the grasses.

Phenotypic plasticity of aposporous embryo sac development in .

Apomixis in follows a developmental pathway of apospory, where an unreduced embryo sac develops from a somatic ovule cell without meiosis. The avoidance of meiosis together with fertilization-independent seed formation leads to clonal progeny genetically identical to the maternal plant. We have previously described the initial developmental steps of aposporous embryo sac formation in and here, we cytologically observed more than 500 ovules with a focus on the later stages of embryo sac maturation.

Asexual Female Gametogenesis Involves Contact with a Sexually-Fated Megaspore in Apomictic .

Apomixis results in asexual seed formation where progeny are identical to the maternal plant. In ovules of apomictic species of the subgenus , meiosis of the megaspore mother cell generates four megaspores. Aposporous initial (AI) cells form during meiosis in most ovules.

Germline Development and Fertilization Mechanisms in Maize.

Maize is the most important agricultural crop used for food, feed, and biofuel as well as a raw material for industrial products such as packaging material. To increase yield and to overcome hybridization barriers, studies of maize gamete development, the pollen tube journey, and fertilization mechanisms were initiated more than a century ago. In this review, we summarize and discuss our current understanding of the regulatory components for germline development including sporogenesis and gametogenesis, the progamic phase of pollen germination and pollen tube growth and guidance, as well as fertilization mechanisms consisting of pollen tube arrival and reception, sperm cell release, fusion with the female gametes, and egg cell activation.

Phylogenetic analysis of the expansion of the MATH-BTB gene family in the grasses.

MATH-BTB proteins are known to act as substrate-specific adaptors of cullin3 (CUL3)-based ubiquitin E3 ligases to target protein for ubiquitination. In a previous study we reported the presence of 31 MATH-BTB genes in the maize genome and determined the regulatory role of the MATH-BTB protein MAB1 during meiosis to mitosis transition. In contrast to maize, there are only 6 homologous genes in the model plant Arabidopsis, while this family has largely expanded in grasses.

De novo zygotic transcription in wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) includes genes encoding small putative secreted peptides and a protein involved in proteasomal degradation.

Wheat is one of the world's most important crops, and increasing grain yield is a major challenge for the future. Still, our knowledge about the molecular machineries responsible for early post-fertilization events such as zygotic reprogramming, the initial cell-specification events during embryogenesis, and the intercellular communication between the early embryo and the developing endosperm is very limited. Here, we describe the identification of de novo transcribed genes in the wheat zygote.

Germline-specific MATH-BTB substrate adaptor MAB1 regulates spindle length and nuclei identity in maize.

Germline and early embryo development constitute ideal model systems to study the establishment of polarity, cell identity, and asymmetric cell divisions (ACDs) in plants. We describe here the function of the MATH-BTB domain protein MAB1 that is exclusively expressed in the germ lineages and the zygote of maize (Zea mays). mab1 (RNA interference [RNAi]) mutant plants display chromosome segregation defects and short spindles during meiosis that cause insufficient separation and migration of nuclei.

Egg cell signaling by the secreted peptide ZmEAL1 controls antipodal cell fate.

Unlike in animals, female gametes of flowering plants are not the direct products of meiosis but develop from a functional megaspore after three rounds of free mitotic divisions. After nuclei migration and positioning, the eight-nucleate syncytium differentiates into the embryo sac, which contains two female gametes as well as accessory cells at the micropylar and chalazal pole, respectively. We report that an egg-cell-specific gene, ZmEAL1, is activated at the micropylar pole of the eight-nucleate syncytium.