Expression analysis of the auxin induced protein IAA30 and its possible association with apomixis in Paspalum notatum.

AZZARO CA; SIENA LA; PODIO M; PESSINO SC; ORTIZ JPA

Foz Iguazú

Congreso; International Congress of Genetics 2018; 2018

Sociedade Brasileira de Genética

Apomixis is an asexual mode of reproduction by seeds. The introgression of the character into sexual crops would greatly contribute to expand the use of heterosis and increase crop production. In Paspalum spp., apomixis segregates as a simple-dominant locus (Apospory Controlling Locus) with a distorted segregation ratio. Comparative mapping analyses revealed that a segment of rice chromosome 12 is syntenic to the ACL in at least four Paspalum species. This segment (5.8 cM) likely includes key genes for apomixis control and expression. One of the candidates, Os12g0601300, encodes for the auxin induced protein IAA30. The objective of this work was to investigate the presence of orthologous of Os12g0601300 in the floral transcriptome of P. notatum and determine their expression levels in apomictic (Q4117) and sexual (Q4188) accessions. BLASTx and BLASTn searches on a floral transcriptome database of P. notatum detected five orthologous sequences. One of them (isotig33023) shows differential representation (p < 0.01 y logFC > 3) among accessions. In vivo expression analyses were carried out by qRT-PCR at four development floral stages (pre-meiosis, meiosis, post-meiosis and anthesis) using two reference (∝ tubulin and GDPH) genes. qRT-PCR amplifications showed that isotig33023 was significantly upregulated in Q4117 compare to Q4188 at meiosis post meiosis and anthesis stages. Our results indicate that at least five genes expressed in the transcriptome are orthologous to IAA30. One of them shows a significant higher expression at meiosis in Q4117 and could be associated with the apomictic mode of reproduction in the species.