Genetic Control of Male Meiosis in Arabidopsis

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9728772 Ma Meiosis is a specialized form of cell division that is essential for the sexual reproduction of all eukaryotic organisms. Plants are excellent systems to study meiosis because the cells that undergo meiosis are easily accessible and multiple male meioses occur nearly synchronously. A male sterile mutant has been isolated from Arabidopsis, 1176-306, whose phenotype is the production of microspores of variable size and containing variable amounts of DNA. The mutated gene has been identified and characterized. The protein encoded by the gene has strong similarity to human and yeast SKP1 proteins, which are known to be regulators of the mitotic cell cycle, but have not yet been determined to be involved in the meiotic cycle. It is proposed that the Arabidopsis SKP1 gene is essential for male meiosis. That hypothesis will be tested by characterizing the Arabidopsis skp1 mutant in detail using genetic, cytological and biochemical methods and by analyzing the SKP1 gene and gene product using molecular, cell biological and biochemical approaches. The existing mutants will be characterized using fluorescence microscopy and the SKP1 RNA and protein expression patterns determined using in situ hybridization and immunolocalization. Possible SKP1 function in mitosis at other stages will be tested. Genetic interactions between SKP1 and other genes will be determined and interactions at the protein level investigated. Suppressors and enhancers of the skp1 mutants will be identified. Other alleles of the SKP1 locus as well as other related genes will be isolated and characterized. These studies will result in greater insight into the genetic control of meiosis at the molecular level, a mechanism which is central to sexual reproduction in all organisms, including plants.