Authors: Tatsunori Saraike Naoki Shitsukawa Yuko Yamamoto Hiroko Hagita Yukimoto Iwasaki Shigeo Takumi Koji Murai
Publish Date: 2007/08/18
Volume: 227, Issue: 1, Pages: 211-221
Abstract
Homeotic transformation of stamens into pistillike structures called pistillody has been reported in cytoplasmic substitution alloplasmic lines of bread wheat Triticum aestivum having the cytoplasm of a wild relative species Aegilops crassa Our previous studies indicated that pistillody is caused by alterations of the class B MADSbox gene expression pattern associated with mitochondrial genes in the Ae crassa cytoplasm To elucidate the nuclear gene involved in the crosstalk between pistillodyrelated mitochondrial genes and nuclear homeotic genes we performed cDNA subtraction analysis using cDNAs derived from young spikes of a pistillody line and a normal line As a result we identified a protein kinase gene WPPK1 wheat pistillodyrelated protein kinase 1 which is upregulated in the young spikes of the pistillody line RTPCR analysis indicated that WPPK1 is strongly expressed in pistils and pistillike stamens in the pistillody line suggesting that it is involved in the formation of pistillike stamens as well as pistils The fulllength cDNA sequence for WPPK1 showed high similarity with a flowering plant PVPK1 protein kinase and phylogenetic analysis indicated that it is a member of AGC group protein kinases Furthermore a phosphorylation assay indicated that it has protein kinase activity In situ hybridization analysis revealed that WPPK1 is expressed in developing pistils and pistillike stamens as well as in their primordia These indicate that in the alloplasmic line WPPK1 plays a role in formation and development of pistillike stamens
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