Stamen development in Arabidopsis is arrested by organ-specific overexpression of a cucumber ethylene synthesis gene CsACO2.
Cucumber (Cucumis sativus L.) has served as a model to understand hormone regulation in unisexual flower development since the 1950s and the role of ethylene in promoting female flower development has been well documented. Recent studies cloned the F-locus in gynoecious lines as an additional copy of the ACC synthase (ACS) gene, which further confirmed the role of ethylene in the promotion of female cucumber flowers. However, no direct evidence was generated to demonstrate that increases in endogenous ethylene production could induce female flowers by arresting stamen development. To clarify the relationship between ethylene production and stamen development, we overexpressed the ethylene synthesis cucumber gene CsACO2 to generate transgenic Arabidopsis, driven by the organ-specific promoter P ( AP3 ). We found that organ-specific overexpression of CsACO2 significantly affected stamen but not carpel development, similar to that in the female flowers of cucumber. Our results suggested that increases in ethylene production directly disturb stamen development. Additionally, our study revealed that among all floral organs, stamens respond most sensitively to exogenous ethylene.
Duan
Qiao-Hong
QH
PKU-Yale Joint Research Center of Agricultural and Plant Molecular Biology, National Key Laboratory of Protein Engineering and Plant Gene Engineering, College of Life Sciences, Peking University, Beijing, People's Republic of China.
Wang
Dong-Hui
DH
Xu
Zhi-Hong
ZH
Bai
Shu-Nong
SN
D017360:Arabidopsis / Q000235:genetics / Q000254:growth & development; D002843:Chromatin / Q000648:ultrastructure; D018553:Cucumis sativus / Q000235:genetics / Q000254:growth & development*; D005030:Ethylenes / Q000096:biosynthesis*; D035264:Flowers / Q000254:growth & development* / Q000648:ultrastructure; D015870:Gene Expression; D017343:Genes, Plant; D008190:Lyases / Q000378:metabolism; D010937:Plant Growth Regulators / Q000737:chemistry / Q000502:physiology*; D030821:Plants, Genetically Modified
D002843:Chromatin; D005030:Ethylenes; D010937:Plant Growth Regulators; C036216:ethylene; D008190:Lyases; C021773:1-aminocyclopropanecarboxylate synthase