The plant-specific ABERRANT GAMETOGENESIS 1 gene is essential for meiosis in rice

Abstract

Meiotic recombination plays a central role in maintaining genome stability and increasing genetic diversity. Although meiotic progression and core components are widely conserved across kingdoms, significant differences remain among species. Here we identify a rice gene ABERRANT GAMETOGENESIS 1 (AGG1) that controls both male and female gametogenesis. Cytological and immunostaining analysis showed that in the osagg1 mutant the early recombination processes and synapsis occurred normally, but the chiasma number was dramatically reduced. Moreover, OsAGG1 was found to interact with ZMM proteins OsHEI10, OsZIP4, and OsMSH5. These results suggested that OsAGG1 plays an important role in crossover formation. Phylogenetic analysis showed that OsAGG1 is a plant-specific protein with a highly conserved N-terminal region. Further genetic and protein interaction analyses revealed that the conserved N-terminus was essential for the function of the OsAGG1 protein. Overall, our work demonstrates that OsAGG1 is a novel and critical component in rice meiotic crossover formation, expanding our understanding of meiotic progression. This study identified a plant-specific gene ABERRANT GAMETOGENESIS 1 that is required for meiotic crossover formation in rice. The conserved N-terminus of the AGG1 protein was found to be essential for its function.

Ubiquitination in Plant Meiosis: Recent Advances and High Throughput Methods

“…This work confirmed the essential role of OsAGG1/HEIP1 in class I CO formation as well as its interaction with HEI10, ZIP4, and MSH5 ( Chang et al, 2019 ). However, Chang et al (2019) also characterized four conserved N-terminal motifs which were essential to its function and interaction with characterized ZMMs.…”

“…Although putative meiotic substrates of the APC/C (PANS1 and SWI1) and SCF CFK 1 (DRM2) have been recently identified in Arabidopsis ( Cromer et al, 2019 ; Chen et al, 2020 ; Yang et al, 2020 ), it’s not yet clear that these interactions are conserved in other plant species nor whether they represent only a fraction of the total proteins targeted by these E3 ligase complexes. Putative substrates of SCF ZYGO 1 , SCF MOF —even HEI10—remain to be identified and/or substantiated in plants ( He et al, 2016 ; Zhang et al, 2017 ; Ziolkowski et al, 2017 ; Li Y. et al, 2018 ; Chang et al, 2019 ; Zhang J. et al, 2019 ). Generally, meiotic E3 ligase-substrate interactions are poorly characterized, particularly in plants.…”

“…Further, loading of HEIP1 on chromosome axes was dependant on both HEI10 and ZIP4 ( Li Y. et al, 2018 ). Chang et al (2019) described a highly similar meiotic phenotype in their description of aberrant gametogenesis 1 (OsAGG1), which is synonymous with HEIP1. This work confirmed the essential role of OsAGG1/HEIP1 in class I CO formation as well as its interaction with HEI10, ZIP4, and MSH5 ( Chang et al, 2019 ).…”

“… Chang et al (2019) described a highly similar meiotic phenotype in their description of aberrant gametogenesis 1 (OsAGG1), which is synonymous with HEIP1. This work confirmed the essential role of OsAGG1/HEIP1 in class I CO formation as well as its interaction with HEI10, ZIP4, and MSH5 ( Chang et al, 2019 ). However, Chang et al (2019) also characterized four conserved N-terminal motifs which were essential to its function and interaction with characterized ZMMs.…”

Genetic and cytological analysis of male sterile mutant <italic>msm2015-1</italic> in mungbean

“…TE5A 株系, 也是同源染色体无法正常配对联会及 形成二价体, 最终导致无花粉粒败育 [44] 。拟南芥 ems1 (excess microsporocytes1)突变体虽然在减数分 裂时核分裂是正常的, 但小孢子母细胞不进行胞质 分裂, 导致小孢子未形成及最终的雄性不育 [45] 。水 稻中 DTM1 (DEFECTIVE TAPETUM AND MEIOC YTES 1)编码一类谷物中特异的内质网蛋白, 同时调 控 着花 粉绒毡 层的 分化和 降解 及减数 分裂 , 表 现 为在减数分裂 I 早期停滞, 最终无花粉粒生成而败 育 [46] 。水稻 osagg1 突变体表现出花药不开裂, 花粉 粒大多数干瘪且典败表型, 与 msm2015-1 的表型较 为相似, 研究发现, osagg1 减数分裂早期重组和联 会发生正常, 但重组交叉数明显减少, 最终导致了 雌雄配子均败育 [47]…”