Study on the expression of specific chimeric-orfs of C type cytoplasmic male sterile in maize

摘要

In the present study, a mutated chimeric orf364, named orf366-c, was identified in a maize C type cytoplasmic male sterile line (CMS-C) by PCR and RT-PCR. Four base pair adjacent base substitution mutations (CAAA to TTTT) and eight bp insertion mutations were found in orf366-c compared with orf364. ORF366-C was predicted to contain one membrane-spanning domain using TMHMM online software. Real-time quantitative PCR analysis showed that orf366-c was upregulated in the CMS-C line in comparison to its maintainer line at the uninucleate stage. The protokaryotic protein expression of orf366-c in Escherichia coli showed that ORF366-C could be a cytotoxic protein. All the results indicated that orf366-c may be associated with maize CMS-C.