title: An endoplasmic reticulum magnesium transporter is essential for pollen development in Arabidopsis.
abstract: Magnesium is one of the essential macro-elements for plant growth and development, participated in photosynthesis and various metabolic processes. The Mg-transport abilities of the AtMGT (Magnesium Transporter) genes were identified in bacteria or yeast mutant system. In our previous studies, both the AtMGT5 and AtMGT9 were found essential for pollen development in Arabidopsis. Here we report another AtMGT member, AtMGT4, which was localized to the endoplasmic reticulum, was essential for pollen development as well. AtMGT4 expressed notably in pollen grains from bicellular pollen stage to mature pollen stage. A T-DNA insertional mutant of the gene, named mgt4-1, showed pollen abortive phenotype, thus we could not get any homozygous mutant from progenies of self-crossed +/mgt4-1 plants. Meanwhile, nearly half of pollens in AtMGT4-RNAi transgenic lines were sterile, consistent with the phenotype of +/mgt4-1 mutant. Transgenic plants expressing AtMGT4 in the mgt4-1 background could recover the pollen fertility to the wild type. Together, our findings demonstrated that the disruption of AtMGT4 in Arabidopsis could cause a defect of pollen development. The visible pollen abortion appeared at bicellular pollen stage in +/mgt4-1.
authors.affiliation: College of Life Sciences, Hunan Normal University, Changsha 410081, PR China.
authors.forename: Jian
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Li
authors.affiliation: College of Life Sciences, Hunan Normal University, Changsha 410081, PR China.
authors.forename: Yuan
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Huang
authors.affiliation: College of Life Sciences, Hunan Normal University, Changsha 410081, PR China.
authors.forename: Hong
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Tan
authors.affiliation: College of Life Sciences, Hunan Normal University, Changsha 410081, PR China.
authors.forename: Xiao
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Yang
authors.affiliation: College of Life Sciences, Hunan Normal University, Changsha 410081, PR China.
authors.forename: Lianfu
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Tian
authors.affiliation: NJU-NJFU Joint Institute for Plant Molecular Biology, School of Life Sciences, Nanjing University, Nanjing 210093, PR China; Department of Plant and Microbial Biology, University of California, Berkeley, CA 94720, USA.
authors.forename: Sheng
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Luan
authors.affiliation: College of Life Sciences, Hunan Normal University, Changsha 410081, PR China. Electronic address: chenliangbi@126.com.
authors.forename: Liangbi
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.affiliation: College of Life Sciences, Hunan Normal University, Changsha 410081, PR China. Electronic address: dli@hunnu.edu.cn.
authors.forename: Dongping
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Li
mesh_terms: D017360:Arabidopsis / Q000235:genetics / Q000254:growth & development* / Q000378:metabolism*; D029681:Arabidopsis Proteins / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism*; D004721:Endoplasmic Reticulum / Q000378:metabolism*; D018506:Gene Expression Regulation, Plant; D008274:Magnesium / Q000378:metabolism*; D011058:Pollen / Q000235:genetics / Q000254:growth & development* / Q000378:metabolism*
chemical_list: D029681:Arabidopsis Proteins; D008274:Magnesium
keywords: Endoplasmic reticulum; Magnesium transporter; Pollen abortion