A putative MYB35 ortholog is a candidate for the sex-determining genes in Asparagus officinalis.

ABSTRACT: Asparagus officinalis (garden asparagus) is a dioecious perennial crop. For agricultural production of A. officinalis, male plants have advantages over female plants. The dioecism of A. officinalis is determined by the single dominant masculinizing M locus, which is involved in tapetal cell development in stamens, but thus far no specific M locus genes have been identified. We re-analyzed previously published RNA-Seq data for the A. officinalis transcriptome, cloned some genes, and discovered that a putative ortholog of MYB35, which is indispensable for tapetal cell development in Arabidopsis thaliana, is absent in the genome of female plants in A. officinalis. In a reverse transcription-PCR analysis, this gene (AoMYB35) exhibited strong expression in stamens in male flowers at an early de

SUBMITTER: Tsugama D 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5296871 | biostudies-literature | 2017 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature