Arabidopsis thaliana chromosome III restores fertility in a cytoplasmic male-sterile Brassica napus line with A. thaliana mitochondrial DNA

Somatic Brassica napus (+) Arabidopsis thaliana hybrids with a cytoplasmic male sterility (CMS)-inducing cytoplasm were screened for fertility-restored plants. One line was selected and recurrently backcrossed with the maintainer line, B. napus, resulting in fertile/sterile segregating populations. Restriction fragment length polymorphism mapping showed the co-segregation of A. thaliana chromosome (chr) III markers with the fertility trait. As it was not possible to stabilise the fertility trait via selfings, a dihaploidisation strategy was assessed. Ninety haploid plants were regenerated and analysed with numerous simple sequence length polymorphism (SSLP) markers. Markers covering both arms of A. thaliana chr III were present in two plants, whereas no A. thaliana DNA could be detected in the other plants. Following colchicine-induced chromosome doubling only these two plants with A. thaliana DNA produced fertile offspring. In one of the two lines, however, the A. thaliana-specific DNA markers and fertility were lost in subsequent generations. The other line remained fertile after repeated selfings. Using genomic in situ hybridisation (GISH) we were able to demonstrate that this latter line possessed a disomic addition of the A. thaliana chromosome. The restored line was comparable to the maintainer line with respect to flower morphology, but the petals and stamens were slightly reduced in size. The homeotic conversion of stamens to pistil-like structures, which is typical for the CMS line, was reversed, and stamens with a normal appearance with viable pollen appeared. Flowering time was as in the CMS line—in both lines it was delayed in comparison to the maintainer line. The introgressed chromosome also contributes to several pleiotropic effects, such as reduced leaf crinkling and shorter stems. The ability to restore fertility through the introgression of nuclear genes from the main cytoplasmic donor species indicates that the CMS trait in this system mainly is due to B. napus/A. thaliana alloplasmic incompatibility and not mitochondrial DNA rearrangements. Further exploitation of the material is discussed.Communicated by C. Möllers     

Microdissection of the Prader-Willi syndrome chromosome region and identification of potential gene sequences

The Prader-Willi syndrome chromosome region on the long arm of human chromosome 15 was microdissected and microcloned from 20 GTG-banded metaphase chromosomes, and 5000 recombinant clones were obtained. Of these clones, 39% identify single-copy human DNA sequences, most of which map to the dissected chromosome region and are evolutionarily conserved in other species. Three of eleven clones studied in detail are deleted in several patients with Prader-Willi syndrome. The microclones will be useful for the physical characterization of the Prader-Willi syndrome chromosome region and the identification of the affected genes in this disease.     

Alloplasmic male sterile Brassica napus with Enarthrocarpus lyratus cytoplasm: introgression and molecular mapping of an E. lyratus chromosome segment carrying a fertility restoring gene.

A cytoplasmic male sterility (CMS) system for Brassica napus (2n = 38; AACC) was developed by backcross substitution of its nucleus into the cytoplasm of a wild crucifer, Enarthrocarpus lyratus. Male sterility was complete, stable, and expressed in small flowers with rudimentary anthers. Since the B. napus germplasm lines were complete or partial maintainers of male sterility, the required fertility restorer gene (Rfl) was introgressed from the cytoplasm donor species. Inheritance studies carried out on F1 and F2 populations derived from hybridizing cytoplasmic male sterile and male fertile near-isogenic (PNILs) lines of B. napus 'Westar', revealed a monogenic dominant control for fertility restoration. Bulked segregant analysis with 215 RAPD primers helped in the identification of putative primers associated with fertility restoration. Co-segregation analysis of eight such primers with Rfl gene revealed two markers, OPK 15700 and OPZ 061300, which flank the Rfl locus on either side at a distance of 8.2 and 2.5 cM, respectively. These DNA markers will be useful in marker-assisted selection for improving the commercial potential of this newly developed CMS-fertility-restorer system for hybrid seed production programs in rapeseed.     

温敏不育系A3314在中国不同生态地点的育性表现

利用作者参与发明的ZL00105488．0专利方法选育的小麦温度敏感不育系A3314在中国元谋、杨陵、石家庄、互助、依安、贵阳、武威7个不同纬度地点种植的自交结实率,结合各点光温条件的分析表明：A3314在黄淮冬麦区、云贵冬麦区、西北春麦区、东北春麦区各点,按当地小麦生产正季播种均表现稳定雄性不育;而在黄淮和云贵冬麦区春播(夏播)则自交结实,适宜条件下自交结实率可达60％以上。说明该温敏不育系的雄性育性受温度的制约,而与日长无明显相关。根据A3314的育性表现,推测它在中国大部分小麦产区均可安全用于杂交小麦制种。     

Inheritance and chromosomal locations of male fertility restoring gene transferred from Aegilops umbellulata Zhuk. to Triticum aestivum L.

Restriction fragment length polymorphism (RFLP) markers were used to map male fertility restoring gene that was transferred from chromosome 6U of Aegilops umbellulata Zhuk. to wheat. Segments of chromosome 6U bearing the gene that restore fertility to T. timopheevi Zhuk. male sterile cytoplasm were identified in all four translocation lines by two probes, BCD21 and BCD342. Lines 040-5,061-1 and 061-4 are T6BL.6BS6U translocations, while line 2114 is a T6AL.6AS-6U translocation. Line 2114 has a much larger 6U chromosomal segment and lower frequency of transmission of male gametes with the alien segment than the other three lines. The restoring gene carried by the 6U segment in 2114 showed high expressivity and complete penetrance. This restoring gene is designated Rf6. A homoeologous chromosome recombination mechanism is discussed for the alien gene transfer.     

Genetic bases of instability of male sterility and fertility reversibility in photoperiod-sensitive genic male-sterile rice

Photoperiod-sensitive genetic male-sterile (PSGMS) rice, with its male fertility regulated by photoperiod length, is very useful for hybrid rice development. However, breeding for new PSGMS lines has faced two major difficulties – the stability of male sterility and the reversibility of male fertility. In this study we assessed the genetic bases of stability of sterility and fertility reversibility using a molecular marker-based approach. A cross was made between two newly bred PSGMS lines: Peiai 64S, which has a stable sterility but is difficult to reverse to fertility, and 8902S, which has a unstable sterility but is easy to reverse to fertility. The fertility of the parents and of the F₁ and F₂ populations was repeatedly examined under 11 different long-day and short-day conditions. The genetic effects were assayed by interval mapping and two-way analyses of variance using the F₂ data of 128 polymorphic loci representing all the 12 rice chromosomes. The analyses resolved a number of single-locus QTLs and two-locus interactions under both long-day and short day conditions. The interactions involved a large number of loci, most of which were not detectable on a single-locus basis. The results showed that the genetic bases of both stability of sterility and reversibility of fertility are the joint effects of the additive effects of the QTLs and additive-by-additive components of two-locus interactions. The implications of these findings in hybrid rice development are also discussed. Received: 11 January 1999 / Accepted: 19 January 1999     

Characterization of a cloned ribosomal fragment from mouse which contains the 18S coding region and adjacent spacer sequences.

The large EcoRI fragment of mouse ribosomal genes containing parts of the non-transcribed spacer, the external transcribed spacer located at the 5' end of the precursor molecule and about two thirds of the 18S sequence has been cloned in bacteriophage lambda gtWES. A physical map of the DNA was constructed by cleavage with several restriction endonucleases and hybridization of the restriction fragments of the recombinant DNA with labelled 18S and 45S rRNA. The orientation of the inserted fragment as well as the length of the 18S sequence was determined by electron microscopy of R-loop containing molecules. The absence of hybridization of the cloned fragment to other fragments in the genome shows that the non-transcribed spacer does not have a significant length of sequences in common with other sequences in the genome.     

Microdissection of and microcloning from the short arm of human chromosome 2.

A bank of cloned DNA sequences from the distal half of the short arm of human chromosome 2 was generated by using microdissection and microcloning techniques. DNA was purified from 106 chromosomal fragments, manually dissected from peripheral lymphocytes in metaphase, and cloned into the EcoRI site of lambda gt10. A total of 257 putative recombinants were recovered, of which 41% were found to contain human inserts. The mean insert size was 380 base pairs (median size, 83 base pairs), and fewer than 10% of the clones contained highly repetitive sequences. All single-copy sequences examined were shown to map to the short arm of chromosome 2 by using hybrid panels. This technique provides a rapid method of isolating probes specific to a human subchromosomal region to generate linked markers to genetic diseases for which the chromosomal location is known.     

Linkage analysis of a fertility restoring mutant generated from CMS rice

 DNA polymorphism between a cytoplasmic male-sterile rice line II-32A, the male-fertile maintainer counterpart II-32B, a fertile revertant (T24), as well as two commercial indica restorers, was analyzed with randomly amplified polymorphic DNA (RAPD). A very low degree of polymorphism was found between the revertant T24 and II-32A compared with that of indica rice varieties. This result, together with agronomic and genetic evidence, suggests the revertant to be a product of a nuclear mutation. An analysis of polymorphism between II-32A and the revertant T24 with 510 RAPD decamer primers identified the co-segregating markers OPB07₆₄₀ and OPB18₁₀₀₀ to be linked to a sterile allele of the restoring locus in the revertant T24, at a distance of 5.3 cM. RAPD analysis of a mapping population of Tesanai2/CB with primer OPB07 revealed linkage of OPB07₆₄₀ with RG374 (10.8 cM) and RG394 (8.8 cM) on chromosome 1. Thus the restorer gene, designated Rf ₅, was tentatively localized between RG374 and RG394 on chromosome 1 and appears to be independent of other mapped restorer genes in rice. Received: 11 November 1997 / Accepted: 17 December 1997     

Sequence analysis of a mitochondrial DNA fragment isolated from cultured cells of carrot cytoplasmic male-sterile strain.

2.0 kb Hind III fragment isolated from cytoplasmic male-sterile carrot mitochondria, designated PKT5, was hybridized to ORF13 which is the coding region of a unique polypeptide in maize CMS (Dewey et al., 1986). Sequence analysis indicated that PKT5 is consisted of 3 domains. Domain 1 was identical to the 5'-flanking region of atp6 in maize CMS-TURF2H3 sequence (Dewey et al., 1986). Domain 2 contained a novel ORF encoding 72 amino acids, which was extremely homologous to the amino-terminal 67 amino acids of the unique ORF13 in maize CMS. Domain 3 except an amino acid change (Ile87 = ATT for Asn87 = AAT), was identical to ORF25 polypeptide in maize CMS. Connective sequences of these 3 domains were also highly homologous to the maize CMS-TURF2H3 sequence. Out of 7 recombination points in maize CMS-TURF2H3 sequence, at least 4 points were conserved in PKT5 sequence.     

Inheritance and chromosomal locations of male fertility restoring gene transferred from Aegilops umbellulata Zhuk. to Triticum aestivum L.

Restriction fragment length polymorphism (RFLP) markers were used to map male fertility restoring gene that was transferred from chromosome 6U of Aegilops umbellulata Zhuk. to wheat. Segments of chromosome 6U bearing the gene that restore fertility to T. timopheevi Zhuk. male sterile cytoplasm were identified in all four translocation lines by two probes, BCD21 and BCD342. Lines 040-5,061-1 and 061-4 are T6BL.6BS6U translocations, while line 2114 is a T6AL.6AS-6U translocation. Line 2114 has a much larger 6U chromosomal segment and lower frequency of transmission of male gametes with the alien segment than the other three lines. The restoring gene carried by the 6U segment in 2114 showed high expressivity and complete penetrance. This restoring gene is designated Rf6. A homoeologous chromosome recombination mechanism is discussed for the alien gene transfer.Paper No. 823 of the Cornell plant breeding series     

Fusion of male-sterile tobacco causes modifications of mtDNA leading to changes in floral morphology and restoration of fertility in cybrid plants

Protoplasts from male-sterile Nicotiana tabacum cultivars with cytoplasms of N. suaveolens, N. bigelovii and N. undulata were fused in different pairwise combinations. Cybrid plants were obtained and categorized according to their flower morphologies into groups as parental male-sterile types, recombined biparentals, novel male-steriles and male fertiles. Restriction enzyme analyses and DNA gel blot hybridizations of the mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) of these cybrid plants revealed that all plants with parental male-sterile morphologies had banding patterns identical to the parental patterns, whereas all cybrids with flower morphologies different from their parents had novel patterns. Several restriction fragments were found to be unique to the mtDNA of male-fertile plants with perfectly restored stamen morphologies when compared to the mtDNA from cybrid plants with incomplete restoration. MtDNA gel blot hybridization analysis of fertile plants revealed that the probe for atpA hybridized to two restriction fragments, one from each parent. Further, fertile plants with complete stamen restoration lacked an expressed sequence in the 3'flanking region of atpA , in contrast to both male-sterile parents.     

Tissue culture triggers chromosome alterations, amplification, and transposition of repeat sequences in Allium fistulosum.

Structural alterations in nuclei and chromosomes of cells derived from callus culture of Allium fistulosum have been studied with fluorescent in situ hybridization (FISH) using 5S ribosomal DNA (rDNA), 45S rDNA, and 375-bp repeat probes. A high frequency of chromosome abnormalities was found to be caused by the loss of telomere-located 375-bp repeats, chromosome fusion, and subsequent breakage-fusion-bridge cycles. Products of chromosome fusions and monocentric and regularly shaped chromosomes showed additional 375-bp repeat and 45S rDNA clusters at unusual sites, suggesting dynamic copy-number changes and transposition of these repeats. Southern hybridization revealed no differences in the 375-bp repeat and 45S rDNA repeat array order or the degree of methylation between DNA isolated from leaves or tissue-culture cells. In addition, protruding, spike-like structures positive for 375-bp repeats were identified on the surface of different-sized nuclei. Transmission electron microscopy analysis revealed the accumulation of densely packed chromatin within spike-like structures. Because root calyptra cells showed similar structures, it is likely that heterochromatic spike-like structures are a feature of nondividing cells at the onset of programmed cell death.     

Eucaryotic chromosome transfer: production of a murine-specific cosmid library from a neor-linked fragment of murine chromosome 17.

We recently developed a procedure for the molecular analysis of specific mammalian chromosomal fragments. This procedure allows for the transfer of contiguous chromosomal fragments, varying in size from a fraction to several centimorgans in length, from the donor cell of one species into a recipient cell of a different species. Specifically, we inserted a neor gene, encoded by a recombinant retrovirus, into the murine major histocompatibility complex (MHC). Metaphase chromosome transfers with this neor-tagged chromosome into recipient hamster, primate, and canine fibroblasts produced a panel of primary neor transferents, each containing a portion of, or all of, the murine MHC. A cosmid library was made from one such transferent, CHMD(D)B1. Cosmid clones were divided, using species-specific repeat probes, into those containing murine (donor) DNA sequences and those containing sequences derived from the recipient cell. The murine-specific cosmids were clustered into overlapping DNA segments by restriction enzyme digest analysis of the cosmid DNAs coupled with Southern blot analysis with, as probes, murine-specific repeat sequences and nick-translated murine genomic DNA. These cosmid clusters were analyzed for their position within or outside of the MHC, using recombinant mouse strains, and for the presence within them of known murine MHC genes.