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=Volume 15 - 2024

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=Among candidate genes underlying the control components of apomixis, APOLLO is known for its strong linkage to apomeiosis in the genus Boechera. The gene has "apo-alleles", which are characterized by a set of linked apomixis-specific polymorphisms, and "sex-alleles". All apomictic Boechera genotypes are heterozygous for the apo/sex-alleles, while all sexual genotypes are homozygous for sex-alleles. In this study, native and synthetic APOLLO promoters were characterized by detecting the expression level of the β-glucuronidase (GUS) gene in Arabidopsis.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 apomixisspecific polymorphisms in the 5'UTR change the timing and location of GUS activity from somatic to reproductive tissues. These synthetic data simulate a plausible evolutionary process whereby apomixis-specific gene activity can be achieved.