Zhu Huihui, Chen Weiwei, Yang Zheng'an, Chen Liang, Huang Li, Hong Yiguo, Yang Jianli
Key Laboratory of Vegetable Biology of Yunnan Province, College of Landscape and Horticulture, Yunnan Agricultural University, No. 452, Fengyuan Road, Panlong District, Kunming 650201, China.
College of Life and Environmental Sciences, Hangzhou Normal University, No. 2318, Yuhangtang Road, Xihu District, Hangzhou 311121, China.
Hortic Res. 2025 May 29;12(9):uhaf143. doi: 10.1093/hr/uhaf143. eCollection 2025 Sep.
To produce mature seed, flowering plants must undergo successful male and female gametogenesis and pollination followed by fruit set, growth, and ripening. This sequential process involves complex genetic programming and less understood epigenetic reprogramming. Here we report a previously unidentified -directed epi-control in pollen mother cell (PMC)-to-microspore transition that determines male fertility to affect seed formation. We generated and characterized hairpin RNA-mediated RNAi and CRISPR/Cas9 transgenic tomato lines in which () was either knockdown (KD) or knockout (KO). has pleiotropic effects on vegetative and reproductive growth, including leaf, flower, and seed development, besides its influence on tomato ripening and fruit size. However, CMT3 KD plants exhibited stronger effects than KO plants in terms of these vegetative and reproductive processes. Real-time quantitative PCR analysis suggested that genetic compensation might contribute to the less impact of KO plants on pollen and seed development. Integrated RNA-seq and whole-genome bisulfite sequencing reveal that functions as an epi-switch via a self-feedback mechanism to modulate gene expression and governs early development of microspores from PMCs prior to the tetrad stage during microsporogenesis to microgametogenesis, possibly through the pectin catabolic process, to establish pollen fertility that affects seed production in tomato.
为了产生成熟种子，开花植物必须成功经历雄配子和雌配子的发生以及授粉，随后是坐果、生长和成熟。这个连续的过程涉及复杂的基因编程以及鲜为人知的表观遗传重编程。在这里，我们报道了一种以前未被识别的在花粉母细胞（PMC）到小孢子转变过程中的定向表观遗传控制，它决定了雄性育性以影响种子形成。我们构建并鉴定了发夹RNA介导的RNA干扰（RNAi）和CRISPR/Cas9转基因番茄株系，其中（）被敲低（KD）或敲除（KO）。（）除了影响番茄成熟和果实大小外，对营养生长和生殖生长具有多效性作用，包括叶片、花朵和种子发育。然而，在这些营养和生殖过程方面，CMT3敲低植株比敲除植株表现出更强的效应。实时定量PCR分析表明，基因补偿可能导致敲除植株对花粉和种子发育的影响较小。综合RNA测序和全基因组亚硫酸氢盐测序表明，（）通过一种自我反馈机制作为一个表观开关来调节基因表达，并在小孢子发生到雄配子发生过程中，在四分体阶段之前调控来自花粉母细胞的小孢子的早期发育，可能是通过果胶分解代谢过程，以建立影响番茄种子产量的花粉育性。
