Three Types of Genes Underlying the Gametophyte Factor1 Locus Cause Unilateral Cross Incompatibility in Maize

Overview

Journal Nat Commun

Specialty Biology

Date 2022 Aug 3

PMID 35922428

Authors

Yuebin Wang

Wenqiang Li

Luxi Wang

Jiali Yan

Gang Lu

Ning Yang

Jieting Xu

Yuqing Wang

Songtao Gui

Gengshen Chen

Shuyan Li

Chengxiu Wu

Tingting Guo

Yingjie Xiao

Marilyn L Warburton

Alisdair R Fernie

Thomas Dresselhaus

Jianbing Yan

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

Unilateral cross incompatibility (UCI) occurs between popcorn and dent corn, and represents a critical step towards speciation. It has been reported that ZmGa1P, encoding a pectin methylesterase (PME), is a male determinant of the Ga1 locus. However, the female determinant and the genetic relationship between male and female determinants at this locus are unclear. Here, we report three different types, a total of seven linked genes underlying the Ga1 locus, which control UCI phenotype by independently affecting pollen tube growth in both antagonistic and synergistic manners. These include five pollen-expressed PME genes (ZmGa1Ps-m), a silk-expressed PME gene (ZmPME3), and another silk-expressed gene (ZmPRP3), encoding a pathogenesis-related (PR) proteins. ZmGa1Ps-m confer pollen compatibility. Presence of ZmPME3 causes silk to reject incompatible pollen. ZmPRP3 promotes incompatibility pollen tube growth and thereby breaks the blocking effect of ZmPME3. In addition, evolutionary genomics analyses suggest that the divergence of the Ga1 locus existed before maize domestication and continued during breeding improvement. The knowledge gained here deepen our understanding of the complex regulation of cross incompatibility.

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