Abstract
The events occurring at the onset of meiosis have not been fully elucidated. In the present study, OsAM1 was identified in rice (Oryza sativa L.) by map-based cloning. OsAM1, a homolog of Arabidopsis SWI1 and maize AM1, encodes a protein with a coiled-coil domain in its central region. In the Osam1 mutant, pollen mother cells are arrested at leptotene, showing that OsAM1 is required for the leptotene-zygotene transition. Immunocytological analysis revealed that OsAM1 exists as foci in early prophase I meiocytes. Very faint OsREC8 foci persisted in the Osam1 mutant, indicating that OsAM1 is not required for the initial meiotic recruitment of OsREC8. In the absence of OsAM1, many other critical meiotic components, including PAIR2, ZEP1 and OsMER3, could not be correctly installed onto chromosomes. In contrast, in pair2, Osmer3 and zep1 mutants, OsAM1 could be loaded normally, suggesting that OsAM1 plays a fundamental role in building the proper chromosome structure at the beginning of meiosis.
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Acknowledgements
We thank Jason G Walling and Jiming Jiang for critical reading of the manuscript. This work was supported by grants from the Ministry of Sciences and Technology of China (2011CB944602 and 2009ZX08009-068B), and the National Natural Science Foundation of China (30921061 and 31070278).
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( Supplementary information is linked to the online version of the paper on the Cell Research website.)
Supplementary information
Supplementary information, Figure S1
Chromosome behaviors and OsAM1 expression in OsAM1-RNAi plants. (PDF 24 kb)
Supplementary information, Figure S2
Expression of OsAM1 in root, stem, leaf, panicle and seedling of wild type rice. (PDF 30 kb)
Supplementary information, Figure S3
Structure of the OsAM1 gene and the localization of Osam1-1 and Osam1-2 mutation. (PDF 16 kb)
Supplementary information, Figure S4
Alignment of rice OsAM1 with SWITCH1 of Arabidopsis and AMEIOTIC1 of maize. (PDF 134 kb)
Supplementary information, Figure S5
Western blot analysis of OsAM1 protein expression in wild type. (PDF 21 kb)
Supplementary information, Figure S6
Immunolocalization of PAIR2 (A), OsMER3 (B) and ZEP1 (C) in wild type PMCs. All bars, 5μm (PDF 19 kb)
Supplementary information, Table S1
Primer sequences used in the present study (PDF 6 kb)
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Che, L., Tang, D., Wang, K. et al. OsAM1 is required for leptotene-zygotene transition in rice. Cell Res 21, 654–665 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1038/cr.2011.7
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/cr.2011.7
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