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ARS Home » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #339035
Title: Isolation and characterization of a male fertility gene (Ms4) in soybean

Author
item WIN THU, SANDI - Texas Tech University
item Sandhu, Devinder
item RAJANGAM, ALEX - University Of Wisconsin
item BALASUBRAMANIAN, VIMAL KUMAR - Texas Tech University
item RAI, KRISHAN - Texas Tech University
item PALMER, REID - Iowa State University
item MENDU, VENUGOPAL - Texas Tech University

Submitted to: American Society of Plant Biologists
Publication Type: Abstract Only
Publication Acceptance Date: 3/9/2017
Publication Date: N/A
Citation: N/A

Interpretive Summary:

Technical Abstract: Identifying a stable male-sterility system is crucial for the development of hybrid soybean. In soybean, eleven male-sterile, female-fertile mutants (ms1, ms2, ms3, ms4, ms5, ms6, ms7, ms8, ms9, msMOS, and msp) have been identified and some of which have been mapped to soybean chromosomes. The objective of this study was to isolate and characterize the ms4 gene. The ms4 gene was located on chromosome 2 using genetic linkage mapping. The comparison of the genetic linkage map with the sequence based physical map helped in localizing ms4 to a 216 Kb region that contains 23 predicted genes. One of the genes in the region Glyma.02G243200, is of particular interest as it codes for male meiocyte death 1 (mmd1) protein in Arabidopsis that triggers cell death in male meiocytes. Isolation and sequencing of the Glyma.02G243200 from the male-sterile and male-fertile lines showed that there is a single base insertion in exon 3 resulting in premature stop codon in ms4. Over-expression of soybean Ms4 functionally complemented the Arabidopsis mmd1 mutant. However, reduced number and size of pods in the complemented plant suggested some functional differences between soybean and Arabidopsis proteins. Ms4 displayed lower expression in the floral buds of mutants compared to wild type. The phylogenetic analysis showed high conservation of the Ms4 protein in the plant lineage. Characterization of the gene involved in male fertility may help to better understand the molecular mechanism of male mediated by soybean Ms4 protein and may lead a path towards development of hybrid soybean.