| Popis: |
Epigenetic modifications are essential for plant development. EFD encodes a SAM-dependent methyltransferase essential for the pollen wall pattern formation and male fertility in Arabidopsis. Here, we found that the expression of DRM2, a de novo DNA methyltransferase in plants, can complement the defects of efd, suggesting its de novo DNA methyltransferase ability. Genetic analysis reveals that EFD plays roles through HB21 as its knockout fully restored the efd fertility. The methylation and H3K27me3 analysis indicates that EFD represses the transcription expression of HB21 through epigenetic modifications. Besides, both EMSA and tobacco transient expression assays showed that HB21 repressed the expression of the genes including CalS5, RPG1/SWEET8, CYP703A2 and NST2 which are essential for pollen formation and anther dehiscence. Altogether, our study reveals a double negative regulatory cascade mediated by epigenetic modifications to coordinate anther development, which provides new insights into epigenetic regulation and anther development. |
