一种新型无花瓣油菜突变不育系花器官的形态解剖研究

在自育的甘蓝型油菜(Brassica napus)无花瓣品系AP197中,发现并育成由4对隐性核基因控制的无花瓣油菜突变不育系AMS971.AMS是一种雄蕊心皮化为不结实的假性雌蕊而引起的新的雄性不育类型,不育性非常彻底,其植株形态特征与AP197相同.比较花器官发现,AMS971除一个正常的雌蕊外,还有6个梭形的心皮化假性雌蕊.假心皮化雌蕊上部变成近似倒U形的柱头结构区,下部是完全突变的半开裂心皮,其上着生4～14个不等的裸露的幼小胚珠;蜜腺比正常油菜小,数目为0～4个,这与AP197没有差异.AMS971的四轮花器官由于突变造成了大小和重量的重新分配.推断AMS为类似拟南芥属B功能缺失的突变体.     

无花瓣油菜雄蕊心皮化突变体细胞学观察及基因表达分析

油菜是我国重要的油料作物,油菜花器官具有典型的十字花科特点,无花瓣油菜在花期不存在花冠层,这种特点有助于提高油菜产量,预防茵核病的传播。雄蕊心皮化是指花器官的雄蕊结构被具有类似于雌蕊结构的器官代替,这不仅造成了花器官结构的变化也导致了雄性不育。本文通过对无花瓣油菜雄蕊心皮化突变不育分离群体中的雄性可育株和不育株的比较研究,发现心皮化现象是由遗传因素引起的。细胞学观察发现,雄蕊心皮化在花器官发育的早期就已经产生,心皮化的雄蕊中着生类似于胚珠的结构,其顶端细胞的形态和排列方式也与雌蕊柱头相似。花发育相关基因的表达分析表明,B组基因彳丹在不育株3轮花器中的表达都比可育株低,特别是在第二轮花器官中这种差异最为突出。而A组基因AP1在不育株第二轮花器官中的表达量较可育株高。c组基因AGL8、SHPI、SHP2、NAP在不育株心皮化的第二轮花器官中表达都较可育株中高。     

一种新型矮牵牛花发育突变体的研究

报道了新发现的一种矮牵牛(Petunia hybrida L.)花发育突变体,命名为efficient(eff),并对这一突变体进行了形态学和遗传学分析。eff突变体主要表现为雌蕊心皮数目的增加和雄蕊上长出花瓣状结构,同时,雄蕊、花瓣和萼片数亦有增多,但营养器官无变化。心皮数目的增加导致雌蕊柱头和子房体积的显著增大,并形成较大的果实。雄蕊上花瓣的形成对花粉的产生无明显影响。扫描电镜观察发现,eff突变体在花器官原基形成时发生了相应数目的增加及特征的变化。遗传学分析表明,突变的表现型符合孟德尔单基因遗传规律。     

不结球白菜雄蕊心皮化雄性不育系HGMSⅡ特性研究

对不结球白菜雄蕊心皮化雄性不育系HGMS和HGMSⅡ进行花器形态比较、同功酶分析及结实性研究.结果表明:HGMSⅡ较好地保留了HGMS花瓣萼片化、雄蕊心皮化鲜明特征,而且花瓣EST和POD同功酶酶带与萼片酶带基本相同,心皮化器官EST和POD同功酶酶带与雌蕊酶带相同.与完全雄蕊心皮化的HGMS相比,HGMSⅡ雄蕊心皮化突变主要发生在花药部位,导致花药丧失了产生花粉的能力,从而保留了HGMS不育性稳定、彻底的优良特性.与HGMS相比,HGMSⅡ开花习性明显改善,柱头表面花粉明显增多,雌蕊发育基本正常,单株平均籽粒产量达到8.96 g,较HGMS增加了7.17 g,增幅达401%,结实性得到了显著提高.     

重花瓣油菜的发现及其生产意义

在十字花科植物中,除了紫罗兰属（Matthiola）具有不育的重花瓣现象以外,其它各属植物均为十字对称四花瓣的能育单瓣花。十字花科植物花器官的这一重要特征,是该物种长期以来进化过程中所形成和固定下来的,具有稳定的遗传特性。以往,人们在自然界的突变体中,虽也发现了能稳定遗传的油菜（Brassi－cacampestris）无花瓣的类型,但据研究,此属于花瓣的退化现象。为什么在花器官中花瓣的数目有多有少？根据花是变态短枝的观点,花的各部分均具有一般叶片的性质,其中雄蕊和雌蕊都可发生变态形成花瓣。因此,从理论上讲,油菜的花部除具…     

APETALA1突变影响WRKY基因的基础表达

拟南芥APETALA1（AP1）既是一个花分生组织特征基因又是一个花器官特征基因,在花器官发育中控制花萼和花瓣的发育。通过GUS染色进一步证实AP1主要在茎尖、花萼、花瓣和花托的位置表达。启动子分析发现,AP1启动子区包含了包括W-box在内的大量顺式作用元件,暗示相关转录调控因子参与了对AP1的调控。21个WRKY基因单突变后并不改变AP1在花中的表达,但是AP1突变则增强了检测的10个WRKY基因中7个WRKY基因的表达,暗示AP1参与了对WRKY基因的基础表达的调控。这个结果也暗示AP1可能通过控制花萼和花瓣的发育从而参与了对花的基础抗性。     

一种花色突变雄性不育油菜的发现

在甘蓝型油菜杂交种C022(其母本为由3对基因控制育性的隐性细胞核雄性不育系9012A)不育株开放受粉的后代中,发现一种稀有的黄白双色嵌合花瓣的甘蓝型油菜突变体991S。其具有3个形态特征:(1)4片花瓣每片中央均为条带状黄色色斑,而两侧为白色,为嵌合双色花瓣;(2)4片花萼也可发生中间条带状白化;(3)目前只在不同群体的雄性不育株中出现,与同源的黄色花不育株形态相似,植株纤细矮小,花器也较小,花瓣较为平整,雌蕊弯曲,雄蕊退化,花药干缩。通过对其材料来源及后代花色表型分析,初步认为黄白双色性状由可局部表达的隐性白化基因控制。     

APETALA3/DEFICIENS和PISTILLATA/GLOBOSA基因与植物花发育

APETALA3(AP3)/DEFICIENS(DEF)和PISTILLATA(PI)/GLOBOSA(GLO)为植物花器官发育B类基因,控制双子叶植物花瓣和雄蕊的发育,它们属于MADS-box基因家族,编码转录因子,这些基因的突变能导致花瓣转变为萼片,雄蕊转变为心皮。近年来已经在多种植物中克隆到了AP3/DEF和PI/GLO基因,AP3/DEF和PI/GLO基因在拟南芥中只在花器官中表达,而在玉米等植物维管束、叶片等组织中也有表达。现对有关AP3/DEF和PI/GLO基因表达及其在植物系统发育学研究方面的进展进行综述。     

南天竹属的花部器官发生及其系统学意义

报道了南天竹（ＮａｎｄｉｎａｄｏｍｅｓｔｉｃａＴｈｕｎｂ．）（小檗科）的花部器官发生。发现该属植物萼片、花瓣和雄蕊的发生式样为三数轮生;雄蕊与花瓣是经它们所具有的共同原基进行侧向分裂而形成的;花瓣发育早期存在迟滞发育的阶段;心皮发生属于瓶状发生类型。讨论了花器官的三基数性质,小檗科花瓣的来源,雄蕊对瓣着生及单心皮雌蕊的形成等问题。对本属的花部个体发育性状同小檗科中已有报道的红毛七属（Ｃａｕｌｏｐｈｙｌｕｍ）、足叶草属（Ｐｏｄｏｐｈｙｌｕｍ）进行了比较,萼片多数轮列与心皮发生的多态现象是南天竹属的独特性状。     

掌叶木的花器官发生及其系统学意义

利用扫描电子显微镜和光学显微镜观察了掌叶木的花器官发生过程。观察结果表明: 花序原基最先发生, 然后形成两个大小不一的花原基; 萼片原基的发生不同步, 螺旋状向心发生; 4-5枚花瓣原基以接近轮状方式近同时发生; 不存在花瓣-雄蕊复合原基; 7-8枚雄蕊原基为近同时发生, 其生长较花瓣原基快; 心皮原基最后发生, 3枚心皮原基为同时发生。花为单性花。在雌花中, 子房膨大而雄蕊退化。在雄花中, 雄蕊正常发育, 子房退化。讨论了掌叶木花器官发生和发育的系统学意义。     

Analyses of the floral organ morphogenesis and the differentially expressed genes of an apetalous flower mutant in <Emphasis Type="Italic">Brassica napus</Emphasis>

The floral organ morphogenesis of the apetalous flower mutant Apet33-10 in Brassica napus was investigated and the result showed that all the floral organ morphogenesis was normal except that petal primordium was not observed during flower development. Eighteen genes were found to be down regulated in early floral buds (less than 200 μm in length) of Apet33-10 at the stage of floral organ initiation by means of suppressive subtraction hybridization (SSH) and RT-PCR. These genes were involved in petal identity, calcium iron signal transduction, mRNA processing, protein synthesis and degradation, construction of cytoskeleton, hydrogen transportation, nucleic acid binding, alkaloid biosynthesis and unknown function. Three overall coding region cDNAs of APETALA3 (AP3) gene, BnAP3-2, BnAP3-3 and BnAP3-4 were obtained by RT-PCR, respectively. Real-time quantitative PCR analysis showed that the expression ratio among BnAP3-2, BnAP3-3 and BnAP3-4 was 3.67:3.68:1 in early floral buds of wild type Pet33-10. The expression level of BnAP3-2, BnAP3-3 and BnAP3-4 in early floral buds of Apet33-10 was down-regulated to 36.6, 28.3 and 66.8% with the comparison of that of wild type, respectively, and the overall expression level of AP3 genes in apetalous mutant amounted to 45.0% of that in wild type. The difference in the expression level of each AP3 gene in stamen between apetalous and wild type lines was not significant. It is suggested that lower abundant expression of AP3 genes during the early flower development might be enough for stamen primordium initiation, but not enough for petal primordium initiation in the apetalous line Apet33-10. Y.T. Zhou and H.Y. Wang are committed as the first author.     

Organelle Simple Sequence Repeat Markers Help to Distinguish Carpelloid Stamen and Normal Cytoplasmic Male Sterile Sources in Broccoli

We previously discovered carpelloid stamens when breeding cytoplasmic male sterile lines in broccoli (Brassica oleracea var. italica). In this study, hybrids and multiple backcrosses were produced from different cytoplasmic male sterile carpelloid stamen sources and maintainer lines. Carpelloid stamens caused dysplasia of the flower structure and led to hooked or coiled siliques with poor seed setting, which were inherited in a maternal fashion. Using four distinct carpelloid stamens and twelve distinct normal stamens from cytoplasmic male sterile sources and one maintainer, we used 21 mitochondrial simple sequence repeat (mtSSR) primers and 32 chloroplast SSR primers to identify a mitochondrial marker, mtSSR2, that can differentiate between the cytoplasm of carpelloid and normal stamens. Thereafter, mtSSR2 was used to identify another 34 broccoli accessions, with an accuracy rate of 100%. Analysis of the polymorphic sequences revealed that the mtSSR2 open reading frame of carpelloid stamen sterile sources had a deletion of 51 bases (encoding 18 amino acids) compared with normal stamen materials. The open reading frame is located in the coding region of orf125 and orf108 of the mitochondrial genomes in Brassica crops and had the highest similarity with Raphanus sativus and Brassica carinata. The current study has not only identified a useful molecular marker to detect the cytoplasm of carpelloid stamens during broccoli breeding, but it also provides evidence that the mitochondrial genome is maternally inherited and provides a basis for studying the effect of the cytoplasm on flower organ development in plants.     

Microarray analysis reveals altered expression of a large number of nuclear genes in developing cytoplasmic male sterile Brassica napus flowers

To gain new insights into the mechanism underlying cytoplasmic male sterility (CMS), we compared the nuclear gene expression profiles of flowers of a Brassica napus CMS line with that of the fertile B. napus maintainer line using Arabidopsis thaliana flower-specific cDNA microarrays. The CMS line used has a B. napus nuclear genome, but has a rearranged mitochondrial (mt) genome consisting of both B. napus and A. thaliana DNA. Gene expression profiling revealed that a large number of genes differed in expression between the two lines. For example, nuclear genes coding for proteins that are involved in protein import into organelles, genes expressed in stamens and pollen, as well as genes implicated in either cell-wall remodeling or architecture, were repressed in the CMS line compared with B. napus. These results show that the mt genome of the CMS line strongly influences nuclear gene expression, and thus reveal the importance of retrograde signalling between the mitochondria and the nucleus. Furthermore, flowers of the CMS line are characterized by a replacement of stamens with carpelloid organs, and thus partially resemble the APETALA3 (AP3) and PISTILLATA (PI) mutants. In accordance with this phenotype, AP3 expression was downregulated in the stamens, shortly before these organs developed carpelloid characteristics, even though it was initiated correctly. Repression of PI succeeded that of AP3 and might be a consequence of a loss of AP3 activity. These results suggest that AP3 expression in stamens depends on proper mt function and a correct nuclear-mt interaction, and that mt alterations cause the male sterility phenotype of the CMS line.     

Ectopic expression of pMADS3 in transgenic petunia phenocopies the petunia blind mutant.

We cloned a MADS-box gene, pMADS3, from Petunia hybrida, which shows high sequence homology to the Arabidopsis AGAMOUS and Antirrhinum PLENA. pMADS3 is expressed exclusively in stamens and carpels of wild-type petunia plants. In the petunia mutant blind, which shows homeotic conversions of corolla limbs into antheroid structures with pollen grains and small parts of sepals into carpelloid tissue, pMADS3 is expressed in all floral organs as well as in leaves. Ectopic expression of pMADS3 in transgenic petunia leads to phenocopies of the blind mutant, i.e., the formation of antheroid structures on limbs and carpelloid tissue on sepals. Transgenic tobacco plants that overexpress pMADS3 exhibit an even more severe phenotype, with the sepals forming a carpel-like structure encasing the interior floral organs. Our results identify BLIND as a negative regulator of pMADS3, which specifies stamens and carpels during petunia flower development.     

Floral development of the model legume <Emphasis Type="Italic">Medicago truncatula</Emphasis>: ontogeny studies as a tool to better characterize homeotic mutations

This work provides new evidence of the complex genetic regulation necessary to accomplish flower development in legumes. Using scanning electron microscopy (SEM) analysis, we have characterized the early developmental events of the wild type Medicago truncatula flower and selected morphological characters as markers to break it down into eight different developmental stages. The order of floral organ initiation in M. truncatula and pea (Pisum sativum L.), in contrast to Arabidopsis and Antirrhinum, is unidirectional in all whorls starting from the abaxial position of the flower with a high degree of overlap. Another main difference is the existence of four common primordia from which petals and stamens differentiate. The formation of common primordia, as opposed to discrete petal and stamen primordia, has been described in many legume and non-legume plants. The main differences between pea and M. truncatula floral ontogeny are in carpel and fruit development. We also used these morphological markers as tools to characterize early alterations in the flower development of a male-sterile M. truncatula floral homeotic mutant named mtapetala. This mutant displays a phenotype resembling those of weak class B mutants with homeotic conversions of floral organ whorls 2 and 3 into sepaloid and carpelloid structures, respectively. Ontogeny studies of the mtapetala mutant flowers showed similarities with the effects of previously described loss-of-B-function mutations. Differences between ontogeny of wild type and mtapetala flowers could not be detected during the first stages (1-5) of flower development. In late stage 5, abnormal-shaped petals with acute lobes and trichomes as well as abnormal-shaped stamens were visible in whorls 2 and 3. At stage 6, the morphology of petals began to change, developing enlarged sepaloid structures bearing trichomes and first the antesepalous stamens and then the antepetalous stamens began to differentiate carpelloid anthers from filaments. Third whorl organs presented different degrees of carpelloidy. The present study should provide tools for the characterization and comparative analyses of new Medicago floral homeotic mutants and could be useful in elucidating how floral organ identity functions work in legumes.     

Genetic interactions among floral homeotic genes of Arabidopsis.

We describe allelic series for three loci, mutations in which result in homeotic conversions in two adjacent whorls in the Arabidopsis thaliana flower. Both the structure of the mature flower and its development from the initial primordium are described by scanning electron microscopy. New mutations at the APETALA2 locus, ap2-2, ap2-8 and ap2-9, cause homeotic conversions in the outer two whorls: sepals to carpels (or leaves) and petals to stamens. Two new mutations of PISTILLATA, pi-2 and pi-3, cause second and third whorl organs to differentiate incorrectly. Homeotic conversions are petals to sepals and stamens to carpels, a pattern similar to that previously described for the apetala3-1 mutation. The AGAMOUS mutations, ag-2 and ag-3, affect the third and fourth whorls and cause petals to develop instead of stamens and another flower to arise in place of the gynoecium. In addition to homeotic changes, mutations at the APETALA2, APETALA3 and PISTILLATA loci may lead to reduced numbers of organs, or even their absence, in specific whorls. The bud and flower phenotypes of doubly and triply mutant strains, constructed with these and previously described alleles, are also described. Based on these results, a model is proposed that suggests that the products of these homeotic genes are each active in fields occupying two adjacent whorls, AP2 in the two outer whorls, PI and AP3 in whorls two and three, and AG in the two inner whorls. In combination, therefore, the gene products in these three concentric, overlapping fields specify the four types of organs in the wild-type flower. Further, the phenotypes of multiple mutant lines indicate that the wild-type products of the AGAMOUS and APETALA2 genes interact antagonistically. AP2 seems to keep the AG gene inactive in the two outer whorls while the converse is likely in the two inner whorls. This field model successfully predicts the phenotypes of all the singly, doubly and triply mutant flowers described.     

Negative regulation of the Arabidopsis homeotic gene AGAMOUS by the APETALA2 product.

We characterized the distribution of AGAMOUS (AG) RNA during early flower development in Arabidopsis. Mutations in this homeotic gene cause the transformation of stamens to petals in floral whorl 3 and of carpels to another ag flower in floral whorl 4. We found that AG RNA is present in the stamen and carpel primordia but is undetectable in sepal and petal primordia throughout early wild-type flower development, consistent with the mutant phenotype. We also analyzed the distribution of AG RNA in apetela2 (ap2) mutant flowers. AP2 is a floral homeotic gene that is necessary for the normal development of sepals and petals in floral whorls 1 and 2. In ap2 mutant flowers, AG RNA is present in the organ primordia of all floral whorls. These observations show that the expression patterns of the Arabidopsis floral homeotic genes are in part established by regulatory interactions between these genes.