Identification of the fertility restoration locus, Rfo, in radish, as a member of the pentatricopeptide-repeat protein family.
Ogura cytoplasmic male sterility (CMS) in radish (Raphanus sativus) is caused by an aberrant mitochondrial gene, Orf138, that prevents the production of functional pollen without affecting female fertility. Rfo, a nuclear gene that restores male fertility, alters the expression of Orf138 at the post-transcriptional level. The Ogura CMS/Rfo two-component system is a useful model for investigating nuclear-cytoplasmic interactions, as well as the physiological basis of fertility restoration. Using a combination of positional cloning and microsynteny analysis of Arabidopsis thaliana and radish, we genetically and physically delimited the Rfo locus to a 15-kb DNA segment. Analysis of this segment shows that Rfo is a member of the pentatricopeptide repeat (PPR) family. In Arabidopsis, this family contains more than 450 members of unknown function, although most of them are predicted to be targeted to mitochondria and chloroplasts and are thought to have roles in organellar gene expression.
Unité de Recherches en Génomique Végétale INRA CNRS, 2 Rue Gaston Crémieux, CP5708, 91057 Evry Cedex, France.
Sophie
S
Desloire
Hassen
H
Gherbi
Wassila
W
Laloui
Sylvie
S
Marhadour
Vanessa
V
Clouet
Laurence
L
Cattolico
Cyril
C
Falentin
Sandra
S
Giancola
Michel
M
Renard
Françoise
F
Budar
Ian
I
Small
Michel
M
Caboche
Régine
R
Delourme
Abdelhafid
A
Bendahmane
D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D017360:Arabidopsis / Q000235:genetics; D002467:Cell Nucleus / Q000378:metabolism; D002736:Chloroplasts / Q000378:metabolism; D002874:Chromosome Mapping; D003001:Cloning, Molecular; D003593:Cytoplasm / Q000378:metabolism; D019992:Databases as Topic; D017343:Genes, Plant; D005819:Genetic Markers; D008928:Mitochondria / Q000378:metabolism; D008957:Models, Genetic; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D010802:Phylogeny; D020161:Physical Chromosome Mapping; D010940:Plant Proteins / Q000378:metabolism; D031224:Raphanus / Q000235:genetics*; D017386:Sequence Homology, Amino Acid
D005819:Genetic Markers; D010940:Plant Proteins