1. Base-Pairing Requirements for Small RNA-Mediated Gene Silencing of Recessive Self-Incompatibility Alleles in Arabidopsis halleri
- Author
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Chloé Ponitzki, Xavier Vekemans, Vincent Castric, Simon Barral, Eric Schmitt, Samson Simon, Isabelle Fobis-Loisy, Nicolas Burghgraeve, Anne-Catherine Holl, Évolution, Écologie et Paléontologie (Evo-Eco-Paleo) - UMR 8198 (Evo-Eco-Paléo (EEP)), Université de Lille-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), Reproduction et développement des plantes (RDP), École normale supérieure de Lyon (ENS de Lyon)-Université Claude Bernard Lyon 1 (UCBL), Université de Lyon-Université de Lyon-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Institut National de Recherche pour l’Agriculture, l’Alimentation et l’Environnement (INRAE), École normale supérieure - Lyon (ENS Lyon), Évolution, Écologie et Paléontologie (Evo-Eco-Paleo) - UMR 8198 (Evo-Eco-Paléo), Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Université de Lille, and École normale supérieure - Lyon (ENS Lyon)-Université Claude Bernard Lyon 1 (UCBL)
- Subjects
0106 biological sciences ,Heterozygote ,Small RNA ,Arabidopsis halleri ,[SDV]Life Sciences [q-bio] ,Arabidopsis ,Genes, Recessive ,Investigations ,Biology ,01 natural sciences ,Genome ,Dominance/recessivity ,03 medical and health sciences ,[SDV.BBM.GTP]Life Sciences [q-bio]/Biochemistry, Molecular Biology/Genomics [q-bio.GN] ,Genotype ,microRNA ,Gene expression ,Genetics ,Transcriptional regulation ,Gene silencing ,Gene Silencing ,RNA, Small Interfering ,Allele ,Base Pairing ,Gene ,Alleles ,030304 developmental biology ,Dominance (genetics) ,0303 health sciences ,Arabidopsis Proteins ,RT-qPCR ,Self-Incompatibility in Flowering Plants ,Heterozygote advantage ,[SDV.BV.BOT]Life Sciences [q-bio]/Vegetal Biology/Botanics ,Allele-specific expression assay ,Sporophytic self-incompatibility ,Transfer RNA ,010606 plant biology & botany - Abstract
Small non-coding RNAs are central regulators of genome activity and stability. Their regulatory function typically involves sequence similarity with their target sites, but understanding the criteria by which they specifically recognize and regulate their targets across the genome remains a major challenge in the field, especially in the face of the diversity of silencing pathways involved. The dominance hierarchy among self-incompatibility alleles in Brassicaceae is controlled by interactions between a highly diversified set of small non-coding RNAs produced by dominant S-alleles and their corresponding target sites on recessive S-alleles. By controlled crosses, we created numerous heterozygous combinations of S-alleles inArabidopsis halleriand developed an RT-qPCR assay to compare allele-specific transcript levels for the pollen determinant of self-incompatibility (SCR). This provides the unique opportunity to evaluate the precise base-pairing requirements for effective transcriptional regulation of this target gene. We found strong transcriptional silencing of recessiveSCRalleles in all heterozygote combinations examined. A simple threshold model of base-pairing for the sRNA-target interaction captures most of the variation inSCRtranscript levels. For a subset of S-alleles, we also measured allele-specific transcript levels of the determinant of pistil specificity (SRK) and found sharply distinct expression dynamics throughout flower development betweenSCRandSRK. In contrast toSCR, bothSRKalleles were expressed at similar levels in the heterozygote genotypes examined, suggesting no transcriptional control of dominance for this gene. We discuss the implications for the evolutionary processes associated with the origin and maintenance of the dominance hierarchy among self-incompatibility alleles.
- Published
- 2020
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