Transcriptome profiling of flower buds of male-sterile lines provides new insights into male sterility mechanism in alfalfa

Abstract

Background The use of heterosis to produce hybrid seeds is a challenge to breeding for improved crop yield. In previous studies, we isolated a male sterile alfalfa hybrid and successfully obtained a genetically stable alfalfa male sterile line through backcrossing, henceforth named MS-4. In this study, we used RNA-seq technology to analyze the transcriptome profiles of the male sterile line (MS-4) and the male fertile line (MF) of alfalfa to elucidate the mechanism of male sterility. Results We screened a total of 11,812 differentially expressed genes (DEGs) from both MS-4 and MF lines at three different stages of anther development. Gene Ontology (GO), and Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) analyses revealed that these DEGs are mainly involved in processes such as energy metabolism, lipid and amino acid metabolism, carbohydrate metabolism, in addition to cell synthesis and aging. The results from protein–protein interaction (PPI) network analysis showed that the ribosomal protein (MS.Gene25178) was the core gene in the network. We also found that transcriptional regulation was an influential factor in the development of anthers. Conclusions Our findings provide new insights into understanding of the fertility changes in the male sterile (MS-4) of alfalfa.

Molecular regulation ofBna1205ams1required for male fertility and development of a recessive genic male-sterility system inBrassica napus

“…The expression level of BnaC03g27700D was consistent with the number of DMs in the present study. In detail, the metabolic pathways identified many DMs, most of which were involved in aborted tapetal PCD, which could lead to reduced pollen fertility with abnormal pollen exine (Xu et al, 2022;Zhang et al, 2014) . Through correlation analysis, 13 metabolites were significantly correlated with the expression level at each stage of S, SM, M and L, which provided further potential functions for BnaC03g27700D in our future study.…”

Whole-transcriptome analyses identify key differentially expressed mRNAs, lncRNAs, and miRNAs associated with male sterility in watermelon

“…Importantly, 14 out of the 25 DEGs enriched in phenylpropanoidrelated pathways were also detected to have significant abundance changes at the protein level (Supplementary Table 6), further confirming the disruption of the corresponding metabolisms in male-sterile flower development. Given that the general phenylpropanoid pathway, together with its related secondary metabolisms, produces numerous substances, serving as important components for pollen wall development (e.g., lignin, coumarins, stilbenes, and flavonoids) (Vogt, 2010;Fellenberg and Vogt, 2015;Shi et al, 2015;Yadav et al, 2020;Wei et al, 2021), it is not surprising to detect substantial differences in plants with male reproductive defects, such as autotetraploid watermelon (Yi et al, 2022), tomato (Yang et al, 2019), Brassica campestris (Liang et al, 2019;Tang et al, 2022), cotton (Li et al, 2019a), and alfalfa (Xu et al, 2022).…”

Multi-omics analyses reveal new insights into nutritional quality changes of alfalfa leaves during the flowering period

“…RNA was extracted, and the RNA-sequencing (RNA-seq) library constructed and sequenced as described by Xu et al. (2022) .…”

“…RNA was extracted, and the RNA-sequencing (RNA-seq) library constructed and sequenced as described by Xu et al (2022). Six libraries were analyzed (three biological replicates at two developmental stages), using the alfalfa genome from: https://figshare.com/articles/dataset/genome_fasta_sequence_ and_annotation_files/12327602.…”

“…Six libraries were analyzed (three biological replicates at two developmental stages), using the alfalfa genome from: https://figshare.com/articles/dataset/genome_fasta_sequence_ and_annotation_files/12327602. Differentially expressed genes (DEGs) were selected with DESeq2 software using p-adjust<0.05 and |log 2 fold change|≥1 as described by Xu et al, 2022.…”