Catalytic assays in blue native gels revealed normal ATPase but deficient NADH dehydrogenase activity in ZidaoA CMS line of rice (Oryza sativa)

Cytoplasmic male sterility (CMS) is an important trait in rice (Oryza sativa L.) breeding because it provides a source for producing hybrid seeds. In rice CMS lines, ATPases involved in the oxidative phosphorylation complexes are believed to be dysfunctional due to the expression of rice CMS-related gene orf79. In the present study, a new type of CMS line named CMS-ZA (ZidaoA) was used. We found an orf79 homologous gene (named orfZ79) in three different rice lines (a CMS line, a maintainer line, and a hybrid). However, no detectable expression products of orfZ79 were found in the three lines. We evaluated the ATPase and NADH dehydrogenase activities of the three lines using in-gel catalytic assays. Our results show that the sterile line has intact ATPase activity, while NADH DHase activity is clearly decreased. To investigate NADH dehydrogenase deficiency, we measured NADH DHase activity in etiolated seedlings and green seedlings from the ZidaoA CMS sterile line and its corresponding maintainer line. We note that the NADH DHase activity of the sterile line was more deficient in green seedlings than that in etiolated seedlings. Our results show a possible role of NADH DHase deficiency to cause rice CMS.