Dicer-like 5 deficiency confers temperature-sensitive male sterility in maize.

ABSTRACT: Small RNAs play important roles during plant development by regulating transcript levels of target mRNAs, maintaining genome integrity, and reinforcing DNA methylation. Dicer-like 5 (Dcl5) is proposed to be responsible for precise slicing in many monocots to generate diverse 24-nt phased, secondary small interfering RNAs (phasiRNAs), which are exceptionally abundant in meiotic anthers of diverse flowering plants. The importance and functions of these phasiRNAs remain unclear. Here, we characterized several mutants of dcl5, including alleles generated by the clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats (CRISPR)-Cas9 system and a transposon-disrupted allele. We report that dcl5 mutants have few or no 24-nt phasiRNAs, develop short anthers with defective tapetal cells, and exhibi

SUBMITTER: Teng C 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7283321 | biostudies-literature | 2020 Jun

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature