Comparative proteomic analysis of mitochondrial proteins from maize CMS‐C sterile, maintainer and restorer anthers

Abstract

The maize C system of cytoplasmic male sterility (CMS) and its fertility restoration gene Rf4 have been widely used for maize hybrid production; however, the underlying mechanism is still uncertain. The sterility factor functions in mitochondria, where it interacts directly or indirectly with the restorer. Mitoproteomics can capture all participants involved in CMS and restoration at the organelle level. In the present study, we identified and quantified anther mitochondrial proteins from CMS, maintainer and restorer lines. We obtained 14,528 unique peptides belonging to 3,369 proteins. Comparative analysis of 1840 high-confidence proteins revealed 68 were differentially accumulated proteins likely involved in CMS or its restoration within mitochondria. These proteins were mainly associated with fatty acid metabolism, amino acid metabolism and protein-processing pathways. These results suggest that an energy deficiency caused by the sterility factor hinders other proteins or protein complexes required for pollen development through nuclear-mitochondrial interaction. The restorer factor may boost the energy generation by activating alternative metabolic pathways and by improving the post-translation processing efficiency of proteins in energy-producing complexes to restore pollen fertility. Our findings may aid detailed molecular analysis and contribute to a better understanding of maize CMS-C restoration and sterility. 1 INTRODUCTION Plant cytoplasmic male sterility (CMS), the inability to produce functional pollen, is a widespread plant reproductive feature (Chen & Liu, 2014). This maternally inherited trait has Abbreviations: CMS, cytoplasm male sterility; DAP, differentially accumulated protein; iTRAQ, isobaric tags for relative and absolute quantification. This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Integrated transcriptomic and proteomic analysis of a cytoplasmic male sterility line and associated maintainer line in soybean

“…Pectin is one of the most important polysaccharides for plant cell wall growth ( Zhang et al., 2020 ). We found that pectin catabolic processes occurred at both the transcriptional and protein levels.…”

“…To elucidate the molecular mechanism underlying CMS, transcriptomic and proteomic approaches have been applied in many higher plants, such as Brassica napus ( Yan et al., 2013 ; Ning et al., 2019 ), Brassica campestris ( Chen et al., 2018 ), Capsicum annuum ( Guo et al., 2017 ), Gossypium hirsutum ( Suzuki et al., 2013 ), Zea mays ( Zhang et al., 2020 ), and Triticum aestivum ( Hao et al., 2021 ). Transcriptomic and proteomic analyses of Brassica napus Shaan2A anther mitochondria implied that the sterility gene may suppress expression of several nuclear transcription factors (TFs), affecting early anther development ( Ning et al., 2019 ).…”

“…(2013) conducted transcriptomic analysis of CMS and restorer lines, which showed that genes related to CMS were primarily involved in cell wall expansion. Anther mitochondrial proteins have also been identified and quantified in a three-line system; the results showed that the proteins involved were mainly related to fatty acid metabolism, amino acid metabolism, and protein processing pathways, indicating that energy deficiency hinders pollen development ( Zhang et al., 2020 ).…”

Assembly and comparative genome analysis of four mitochondrial genomes from Saccharum complex species

“…Recent studies have identified different conformations of mitochondrial genomes (mitogenomes), including linear structure of Lactuca sativa ( Guo et al., 2019 ), branched structure of some cytoplasmic male sterility (CMS) lines in Zea mays ( Zhang et al., 2020b ), and numerous circular arrangements, such as Silene noctiflora ( Wu et al., 2015 ) and Ombrophytum subterraneum ( Roulet et al., 2020 ). Mitogenomes in the Poaceae family usually consist of individual ring DNA molecules, as in Oryza minuta ( Asaf et al., 2016 ), Sporobolus alterniflorus ( Wang et al., 2021 ), Avena longiglumis ( Liu et al., 2023 ), Elymus magellanicus ( Chen et al., 2023b ), and Eleusine indica ( Hall et al., 2020 ).…”

Identification of Maize Rf4-Restorer Lines and Development of a CAPS Marker for Rf4

“…Through the single-cell RNA sequencing of meiocytes and microspores, it was found that Rf4 plays an important role in the maintenance of redox homeostasis in pollen formation [20]. Comparative transcriptomic and proteomic analyses revealed that Rf4 might boost energy generation to restore pollen fertility [21,22].…”