A pair of homoeolog ClpP5 genes underlies a virescent yellow‐like mutant and its modifier in maize

• DOI: 10.1111/tpj.12568
• Publication Date: 2014-05-30T14:26:37Z
• Authors: Anqi Xing; Mark E. Williams; Timothy M. Bourett; Wangnan Hu; Zhenglin Hou; Robert B. Meeley; Jennifer Jaqueth; Thao Dam; Bailin Li
• Keywords: Plant Leaves; 0301 basic medicine; 2. Zero hunger; 03 medical and health sciences; Chloroplasts; Gene Expression Regulation, Plant; Genes, Duplicate; Endopeptidase Clp; Zea mays

Gene-background interaction is a commonly observed phenomenon in many species, but the molecular mechanisms of such an less well understood. Here we report cloning maize mutant gene and its modifier. A recessive with virescent yellow-like (vyl) phenotype was identified ethyl methanesulfonate-mutagenized population derived from inbred line B73. Homozygous plants exhibited yellow leaf after emergence gradually recovered became indistinguishable wild-type approximately 2 weeks. Taking positional approach, Chr.9_ClpP5 gene, one proteolytic subunits chloroplast Clp protease complex, validated as candidate for vyl. When introgressed by backcross into PH09B, vyl lasted much longer greenhouse lethal field, implying presence modifier(s) major modifier locus on chromosome 1, paralogous ClpP5 isolated confirmed vyl-modifier. Expression Chr.1_ClpP5 induced significantly B73 mutation, while expression PH09B not responsive to mutation. Moreover, sequence analysis suggests that allele functionally weaker than allele. We propose functional redundancy between duplicated genes mechanism