AUTHOR=Honari Maryam , Ashnest Joanne R. , Sharbel Timothy F. 

TITLE=Sex- versus apomixis-specific polymorphisms in the 5′UTR of APOLLO from Boechera shift gene expression from somatic to reproductive tissues in Arabidopsis

JOURNAL=Frontiers in Plant Science

VOLUME=15

YEAR=2024

URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/plant-science/articles/10.3389/fpls.2024.1308059

DOI=10.3389/fpls.2024.1308059

ISSN=1664-462X

ABSTRACT=<sec><title>Introduction</title><p>Among candidate genes underlying the control components of apomixis, APOLLO is known for its strong linkage to apomeiosis in the genus <italic>Boechera</italic>. The gene has “apo alleles,” which are characterized by a set of linked apomixis-specific polymorphisms, and “sex alleles.” All apomictic <italic>Boechera</italic> genotypes are heterozygous for the apo/sex alleles, whereas all sexual genotypes are homozygous for sex alleles.</p></sec><sec><title>Methods</title><p>In this study, native and synthetic APOLLO promoters were characterized by detecting the expression level of the β-glucuronidase (GUS) gene in <italic>Arabidopsis</italic>.</p></sec><sec><title>Results</title><p>Comparing various flower developmental stages in transgenic lines containing different constructs with 2-kb native transgenic lines revealed that changes to the APOLLO promoter causes shifts in tissue and developmental stage specificity of GUS expression. Importantly, several apomixis-specific polymorphisms in the 5′UTR change the timing and location of GUS activity from somatic to reproductive tissues.</p></sec><sec><title>Discussion</title><p>These synthetic data simulate a plausible evolutionary process, whereby apomixis-specific gene activity can be achieved.</p></sec>