title: The Propensity of Pentatricopeptide Repeat Genes to Evolve into Restorers of Cytoplasmic Male Sterility.
abstract: Cytoplasmic male sterility (CMS) is a widespread phenotype in plants, which present a defect in the production of functional pollen. The male sterilizing factors usually consist of unusual genes or open reading frames encoded by the mitochondrial genome. CMS can be suppressed by specific nuclear genes called restorers of fertility (Rfs). In the majority of cases,Rfgenes produce proteins that act directly on the CMS conferring mitochondrial transcripts by binding them specifically and promoting processing events. In this review, we explore the wide array of mechanisms guiding fertility restoration. PPR proteins represent the most frequent protein class among identified Rfs and they exhibit ideal characteristics to evolve into restorer of fertility when the mechanism of restoration implies a post-transcriptional action. Here, we review the literature that highlights those characteristics and help explain why PPR proteins are ideal for the roles they play as restorers of fertility.
authors.affiliation: Department of Biology, McGill University Montreal, QC, Canada.
authors.forename: Lydiane
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Gaborieau
authors.affiliation: Department of Biology, McGill University Montreal, QC, Canada.
authors.forename: Gregory G
authors.initials: GG
authors.lastname: Brown
authors.affiliation: Institut Jean-Pierre Bourgin, INRA, AgroParisTech, CNRS, Université Paris-Saclay Versailles, France.
authors.forename: Hakim
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Mireau
keywords: CMS; PPR proteins; RNA; fertility restorer; mitochondria