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ARS Home » Pacific West Area » Albany, California » Western Regional Research Center » Crop Improvement and Genetics Research » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #335486
Title: A TRIM insertion in the promoter of Ms2 causes male sterility in wheat

Author
item XIA, CHUAN - Chinese Academy Of Agricultural Sciences
item ZHANG, LICHAO - Chinese Academy Of Agricultural Sciences
item ZOU, CHENG - Chinese Academy Of Agricultural Sciences
item Gu, Yong
item DUAN, JIALEI - Chinese Academy Of Agricultural Sciences
item ZHAO, GUANGYAO - Chinese Academy Of Agricultural Sciences
item WU, JIAJIE - Chinese Academy Of Agricultural Sciences
item LIU, YUE - Chinese Academy Of Agricultural Sciences
item FANG, XIAOHUA - Chinese Academy Of Sciences
item GAO, LIFENG - Chinese Academy Of Agricultural Sciences
item JIAO, YUANNIAN - Chinese Academy Of Sciences
item SUN, JIAQIANG - Chinese Academy Of Agricultural Sciences
item PAN, YINGHONG - Chinese Academy Of Agricultural Sciences
item LIU, XU - Chinese Academy Of Agricultural Sciences
item JIA, JIZENG - Chinese Academy Of Agricultural Sciences
item KONG, XIUYING - Chinese Academy Of Agricultural Sciences

Submitted to: Nature Communications
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 3/25/2017
Publication Date: 5/12/2017
Citation: Xia, C., Zhang, L., Zou, C., Gu, Y.Q., Duan, J., Zhao, G., Wu, J., Liu, Y., Fang, X., Gao, L., Jiao, Y., Sun, J., Pan, Y., Liu, X., Jia, J., Kong, X. 2017. A TRIM insertion in the promoter of Ms2 causes male sterility in wheat. Nature Communications. 8:15407. doi: 10:1038/ncomms15407

Interpretive Summary: Male sterility is a prerequisite for the economically viable production of hybrid wheat seeds. Ms2, the first dominant male-sterility mutant in wheat, was identified in 1972. In this report, we mapped the ms2 gene and isolated it using a map-based cloning approach, and validated our identification by using EMS mutagenesis to knock it out. We found that the male sterility phenotype was caused by an insertion of a transposable element called TRIM into the promoter region of the wild type Ms2 gene. This TRIM element is responsible for the activation of Ms2 specifically in anthers, where its gene product confers male sterility. Characterization of the Ms2 gene not only illustrates that reactivation of a silenced gene can contribute to new and useful functionality, but also provides an important resource for designing new breeding strategies for wheat improvement.

Technical Abstract: The male sterile ms2 mutant has been known for 40 years and has become extremely important in the commercial production of wheat. However, the gene responsible for this phenotype has remained unknown. We here report the map-based-cloning of the Ms2 gene. The Ms2 locus is remarkable in several ways that have implications in basic biology. Beyond having no functional annotation and clearly having undergone pseudogenization, we found that the Ms2 allele in the ms2 mutant acquired a terminal-repeat retrotransposon in miniature (TRIM) element in its promoter. This TRIM element is responsible for the anther-specific Ms2 activation that confers male sterility. The identification of Ms2 not only unravels the genetic basis of a historically-important breeding gene, but also illustrates pseudogenization at the population level and shows that resurrection of an unfixed pseudogene in the population can contribute to genetic novelty and phenotypic plasticity.