title: Cleistogamous flowering in barley arises from the suppression of microRNA-guided HvAP2 mRNA cleavage.
abstract: The cleistogamous flower sheds its pollen before opening, forcing plants with this habit to be almost entirely autogamous. Cleistogamy also provides a means of escape from cereal head blight infection and minimizes pollen-mediated gene flow. The lodicule in cleistogamous barley is atrophied. We have isolated cleistogamy 1 (Cly1) by positional cloning and show that it encodes a transcription factor containing two AP2 domains and a putative microRNA miR172 targeting site, which is an ortholog of Arabidopsis thaliana AP2. The expression of Cly1 was concentrated within the lodicule primordia. We established a perfect association between a synonymous nucleotide substitution at the miR172 targeting site and cleistogamy. Cleavage of mRNA directed by miR172 was detectable only in a noncleistogamous background. We conclude that the miR172-derived down-regulation of Cly1 promotes the development of the lodicules, thereby ensuring noncleistogamy, although the single nucleotide change at the miR172 targeting site results in the failure of the lodicules to develop properly, producing the cleistogamous phenotype.
authors.affiliation: National Institute of Agrobiological Sciences, Tsukuba 305-8602, Japan.
authors.forename: Sudha K
authors.initials: SK
authors.lastname: Nair
authors.forename: Ning
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.forename: Yerlan
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Turuspekov
authors.forename: Mohammad
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Pourkheirandish
authors.forename: Suphawat
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Sinsuwongwat
authors.forename: Guoxiong
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.forename: Mohammad
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Sameri
authors.forename: Akemi
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Tagiri
authors.forename: Ichiro
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Honda
authors.forename: Yoshiaki
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Watanabe
authors.forename: Hiroyuki
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Kanamori
authors.forename: Thomas
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Wicker
authors.forename: Nils
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Stein
authors.forename: Yoshiaki
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Nagamura
authors.forename: Takashi
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Matsumoto
authors.forename: Takao
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Komatsuda
mesh_terms: D001483:Base Sequence; D035264:Flowers / Q000502:physiology*; D018506:Gene Expression Regulation, Plant; D001467:Hordeum / Q000033:anatomy & histology / Q000235:genetics / Q000502:physiology*; D035683:MicroRNAs / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism*; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D010802:Phylogeny; D010940:Plant Proteins / Q000235:genetics* / Q000378:metabolism; D011110:Polymorphism, Genetic; D012333:RNA, Messenger / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism*; D018749:RNA, Plant / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism; D016415:Sequence Alignment; D014157:Transcription Factors / Q000235:genetics* / Q000378:metabolism
chemical_list: D035683:MicroRNAs; D010940:Plant Proteins; D012333:RNA, Messenger; D018749:RNA, Plant; D014157:Transcription Factors