Abstract
Cytological and histochemical analyses were performed on developing anthers of wild-type, transgenic male-sterile and fertility-restored Brassica napus plants. Male sterility resulted from the expression of the barnase gene under the control of the tobacco-derived tapetumspecific promoter pTA29. Fertility was restored to male sterile plants by expressing the barstar gene, which encodes a barnase-specific inhibitor protein. In addition, the tissue specificity of the pTA29 promoter in B. napus was studied in transgenic plants expressing pTA29:gus fusions. In B. napus, the pTA29 promoter not only directed the expression of genes to the tapetum, but also, although more weakly, to the vascular tissue region of the anther filament at the late uninucleate and early binucleate stage. The pTA29:barnase gene was expressed in the tapetum at the vacuolated-microspore stage. This resulted in the disappearance of RNA from the tapetum. Degradation of RNA in the tapetum was immediately followed by a complete loss of RNA in the developing microspores. Following lysis of the microspores in the sterile anthers, the pTA29:barnase gene was expressed in the vascular tissue region of the anther filament. This expression resulted in a deposition of wound callose in the phloem, followed by a precocious wilting of the whole anther. Finally, in the fertility-restored plants the cytological and histochemical patterns of anther development were identical to those of wild-type anthers.
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Abbreviations
- NMS:
-
nuclear male sterility
- WT:
-
wild type
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We thank Dr. E. Krebbers (Plant Genetic Systems, Gent, Belgium) for the critical reading of the manuscript.
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De Block, M., Debrouwer, D. Engineered fertility control in transgenic Brassica napus L.: Histochemical analysis of anther development. Planta 189, 218–225 (1993). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00195080
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00195080