Journal
NATURE GENETICS
Volume 45, Issue 5, Pages 573-U157Publisher
NATURE PUBLISHING GROUP
DOI: 10.1038/ng.2570
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Funding
- Ministry of Science and Technology of China [2011CB100203/2013CBA01401, 31230052, 2013CB126900]
- National Natural Science Foundation of China
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Plant cytoplasmic male sterility (CMS) results from incompatibilities between the organellar and nuclear genomes and prevents self pollination, enabling hybrid crop breeding to increase yields(1-6). The Wild Abortive CMS (CMS-WA) has been exploited in the majority of 'three-line' hybrid rice production since the 1970s, but the molecular basis of this trait remains unknown. Here we report that a new mitochondrial gene, WA352, which originated recently in wild rice, confers CMS-WA because the protein it encodes interacts with the nuclear-encoded mitochondrial protein COX11. In CMS-WA lines, WA352 accumulates preferentially in the anther tapetum, thereby inhibiting COX11 function in peroxide metabolism and triggering premature tapetal programmed cell death and consequent pollen abortion. WA352-induced sterility can be suppressed by two restorer-of-fertility (Rf) genes, suggesting the existence of different mechanisms to counteract deleterious cytoplasmic factors. Thus, CMS-related cytoplasmic-nuclear incompatibility is driven by a detrimental interaction between a newly evolved mitochondrial gene and a conserved, essential nuclear gene.
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