Global gene expression analysis of pigeonpea with male sterility conditioned by A₂ cytoplasm

Abstract

Cytoplasmic male sterility(CMS), a maternally inherited trait, provides a promising means to harness yield gains associated with hybrid vigor. In pigeonpea [Cajanus cajan (L.) Huth], nine types of sterility-inducing cytoplasm have been reported, of which A 2 and A 4 have been successfully deployed in hybrid breeding. Unfortunately, molecular mechanism of the CMS trait is poorly understood because of limited research invested. More recently, an association between a mitochondrial gene (nad7) and A 4 -CMS has been demonstrated in pigeonpea; however, the mechanism underlying A 2 -CMS still remains obscure. The current investigation aimed to analyze the differences in A 2 -CMS line (ICPL 88039A) and its isogenic maintainer line (ICPL 88039B) at transcriptome level using next-generation sequencing. Gene expression profiling uncovered a set of 505 genes that showed altered expression in response to CMS, of which, 412 genes were upregulated while 93 were downregulated in the fertile maintainer line vs. the CMS line. Further, gene ontology (GO), Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG), and protein-protein interaction (PPI) network analyses revealed association of CMS in pigeonpea with four major pathways: glucose and lipid metabolism, ATP production, pollen development and pollen tube growth, and reactive oxygen species (ROS) scavenging. Patterns of digital gene expression were confirmed by quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR) of six candidate genes. This study elucidates candidate genes and metabolic pathways having potential associations with pollen development and male sterility in pigeonpea A 2 -CMS. New insights on molecular mechanism of CMS trait

Next generation breeding in pulses: Present status and future directions

“…The study by Raju et al (2010) reported 9,468 high quality ESTs and identified genes responsive to Fusarium wilt ( 19) and sterility mosaic disease (20), the two most prominent diseases of pigeonpea. More recently, transcriptome assemblies have been developed in pigeonpea based on RNA-Seq of transcriptomes from unopened flower buds of male sterile lines and cognate fertile lines (Bohra et al 2021a, Bohra et al 2021b.…”

Comparative Analysis of Mitochondrial Genomes between the B-Type Cytoplasmic Male Sterility Line and Its Maintainer Line in Wheat

“…The trait is widespread in flowering plants, with more than 140 species known to exhibit CMS [7]. These include maize, sunflower, sorghum, common beans, cotton, rice, pigeonpea, pepper, and wheat [8][9][10][11][12]. The CMS phenomenon provides a convenient model to study nuclear-cytoplasmic interactions, but its molecular mechanism is very complex [13,14].…”