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Gene expression associated with apogamy commitment in Ceratopteris richardii

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Abstract

Apogamy is a phenomenon in which a sporophyte develops asexually, directly from a cell or cells of a gametophyte. It is a phenomenon described mainly in lower plants, but shares certain aspects with apomixis in angiosperms. The genes involved in apogamy commitment in ferns are unknown. We hypothesize that the mechanism of asexual reproduction is controlled in lower and higher plants by overlapping sets of genes. To this end, we created a normalized subtracted cDNA library that represents genes with increased expression during apogamy commitment in the fern Ceratopteris richardii. The cDNA library consists of 170 unique sequences. Compared to the mature gametophyte transcriptome of the fern Pteridium aquilinum, the apogamy library is enriched in plant GO-Slim terms that are associated with stress and metabolism. In silico expression analyses of the closest Arabidopsis homologs of the apogamy library revealed many genes that display preferential expression in seed and flower tissues, structures that are absent in ferns. This apogamy library provides a rich resource for investigations into the genetic control of apogamy in ferns and comparisons with the asexual processes of higher plants.

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Acknowledgments

We would like to thank J. Fassler (University of Iowa) for critical readings of the manuscript, and D. Houston (University of Iowa) and G. Hehman (Carver Center for Genomics) for assistance with the RT-qPCR experiments and sequencing. This work was supported by a grant from the University of Iowa Research Council. ARC was also supported by Avis Cone Summer Fellowships.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Biology, University of Iowa, Iowa City, IA, 52242, USA

    Angela R. Cordle, Erin E. Irish & Chi-Lien Cheng

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  1. Angela R. Cordle
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  2. Erin E. Irish
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  3. Chi-Lien Cheng
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Correspondence to Chi-Lien Cheng.

Additional information

Communicated by Scott Russell.

Electronic supplementary material

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Primer sequences used in this study (PDF 50 kb)

497_2012_198_MOESM2_ESM.xls

The identity, lengths, minimum blast E-values, Arabidopsis homologues, and Plant GO-Slim terms mapped to the 170 apogamy library sequences 2 (XLS 128 kb)

v 3 (XLS 295 kb)

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Cordle, A.R., Irish, E.E. & Cheng, CL. Gene expression associated with apogamy commitment in Ceratopteris richardii . Sex Plant Reprod 25, 293–304 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00497-012-0198-z

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00497-012-0198-z

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