AUTHOR=Huang Jian , Smith Ashley R. , Zhang Tianyu , Zhao Dazhong 

TITLE=Creating Completely Both Male and Female Sterile Plants by Specifically Ablating Microspore and Megaspore Mother Cells

JOURNAL=Frontiers in Plant Science

VOLUME=7

YEAR=2016

URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/plant-science/articles/10.3389/fpls.2016.00030

DOI=10.3389/fpls.2016.00030

ISSN=1664-462X

ABSTRACT=<p>Although genetically modified (GM) plants have improved commercially important traits, such as biomass and biofuel production, digestibility, bioremediation, ornamental value, and tolerance to biotic and abiotic stresses, there remain economic, political, or social concerns over potential ecological effects of transgene flow from GM plants. The current solution for preventing transgene flow from GM plants is genetically engineering sterility; however, approaches to generating both male and female sterility are limited. In addition, existing strategies for creating sterility lead to loss or modifications of entire flowers or floral organs. Here, we demonstrate that instead of the 1.5-kb promoter, the entire <italic>SOLO DANCERS</italic> (<italic>SDS</italic>) gene is required for its meiocyte-specific expression. We then developed an efficient method to specifically ablate microspore and megaspore mother cells using the <italic>SDS</italic> and <italic>BARNASE</italic> fusion gene, which resulted in complete sterility in both male and female reproductive organs in <italic>Arabidopsis</italic> (<italic>Arabidopsis thaliana</italic>) and tobacco (<italic>Nicotiana tabacum</italic>), but did not affect plant growth or development, including the formation of all flower organs. Therefore, our research provides a general and effective tool to prevent transgene flow in GM plants.</p>