title: Role of Arabidopsis sterol 4α-methyl oxidase2 family in embryo and postembryonic development.
abstract: Sterols play important roles in plant growth, including embryogenesis, cell expansion, vascular differentiation, male fertility, and endocytosis. Sterols become functional only after removal of the 2 methyl groups at C-4. There are 2 distinct sterol C-4-methyl oxidase (SMO) families in higher plants, SMO1 and SMO2, which contain 3 and 2 isoforms, respectively, involving in the removal of the first and second C4 methyl groups during sterols biosynthesis. In a recent study we showed that single smo2-1 and smo2-2 mutants displayed no significant phenotype, while smo2-1 smo2-2 double mutant was embryonic lethal. smo2-1/+ smo2-2 and smo2-1 smo2-2/+ mutants showed defect in abnormal embryo patterning and smo2-1 smo2-2/+ mutant displayed dwarf phenotype. In this mini-review, we summarize the functions and regulatory mechanisms of SMO2-1 and SMO2-2 in embryo and postembryonic development.
authors.affiliation: a Department of Plant Biology and Ecology , College of Life Sciences, Nankai University , Tianjin , China.
authors.forename: Xia
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.affiliation: b Department of Soil and Water Sciences , China Agricultural University , Beijing , PR China.
authors.forename: Heping
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Li
keywords: Embryonic lethal; SMO2-1; SMO2-2; postembryonic development; sterol