Affiliation:
1. Microbial and Plant Biotechnology Department, Pollen Biotechnology of Crop Plants Laboratory, Margarita Salas Center of Biological Research, CIB Margarita Salas-CSIC, Ramiro de Maeztu 9, Madrid 28040, Spain
2. Department of Molecular Sciences, Uppsala BioCenter, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences and Linnean Center for Plant Biology, PO Box 7015, Uppsala 75007, Sweden
Abstract
Abstract
Microspore embryogenesis is a biotechnological process that allows us to rapidly obtain doubled-haploid plants for breeding programs. The process is initiated by the application of stress treatment, which reprograms microspores to embark on embryonic development. Typically, a part of the microspores undergoes cell death that reduces the efficiency of the process. Metacaspases (MCAs), a phylogenetically broad group of cysteine proteases, and autophagy, the major catabolic process in eukaryotes, are critical regulators of the balance between cell death and survival in various organisms. In this study, we analyzed the role of MCAs and autophagy in cell death during stress-induced microspore embryogenesis in Brassica napus. We demonstrate that this cell death is accompanied by the transcriptional upregulation of three BnMCA genes (BnMCA-Ia, BnMCA-IIa and BnMCA-IIi), an increase in MCA proteolytic activity and the activation of autophagy. Accordingly, inhibition of autophagy and MCA activity, either individually or in combination, suppressed cell death and increased the number of proembryos, indicating that both components play a pro-cell death role and account for decreased efficiency of early embryonic development. Therefore, MCAs and/or autophagy can be used as new biotechnological targets to improve in vitro embryogenesis in Brassica species and doubled-haploid plant production in crop breeding and propagation programs.
Funder
The Spanish National Agency of Research
European Regional Development Fund
Swedish Foundation for Strategic Research and the research program
Publisher
Oxford University Press (OUP)
Subject
Cell Biology,Plant Science,Physiology,General Medicine
Cited by
13 articles.
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