Effects of specific expression of iaaL gene in tobacco tapetum on pollen embryogenesis

Abstract

The indoleacetic-acid-lysine synthetase (iaaL) gene from Pseudomonas syringae subsp. savastanoi was fused to tobacco tapetum-specific expression promoter TA29, and introduced into tobacco. The expression pattern of this chimeric gene was studied, and the endogenous indoleacetic acid (IAA) levels in different organs were assayed. The results demonstrated that TA29 promoter was only able to direct the specific expression of iaaL gene in transgenic tobacco anther, and resulted in the decrease of endogenous IAA levels in transgenic tobacco anther. No significant phenotype variation was observed among the transgenic plants at the whole plant level. However, the percentage of pollen embryogenesis was reduced to 11% when anthers of the transgenic plants were cultured on the modified hormone-free Nistch H (NH) medium, while those of both CK1 and CK2 (see sec. 1.2.2) were more than 50%; when the anthers were cultured on NH medium supplemented with 0. 2 mg/L IAA, the percentage of pollen embryogenesis restored to the same level of that of the wild type (up to 55.7%). This study demonstrates that the IAA metabolism in anther tapetum cells is of significant importance to the androgenic development in anther culture.