Manipulation of GA Levels and GA Signal Transduction in Anthers to Generate Male Sterility

The original objectives of the research were: i. To study the role of GA in anther development, ii. To manipulate GA and/or GA signal transduction levels in the anthers in order to generate male sterility. iii. To characterize the GA signal transduction repressor, SPY. Previous studies have suggested that gibberellins (GAs) are required for normal anther development. In this work, we studied the role of GA in the regulation of anther development in petunia. When plants were treated with the GA-biosynthesis inhibitor paclobutrazol, anther development was arrested. Microscopic analysis of these anthers revealed that paclobutrazol inhibits post-meiotic developmental processes. The treated anthers contained pollen grains but the connective tissue and tapetum cells were degenerated. The expression of the GA-induced gene, GIP, can be used in petunia as a molecular marker to: study GA responses. Analyses of GIP expression during anther development revealed that the gene is induced only after microsporogenesis. This observation further suggests a role for GA in the regulation of post-meiotic processes during petunia anther development. Spy acts as a negative regulator of gibberellin (GA) action in Arabidopsis. We cloned the petunia Spy homologue, PhSPY, and showed that it can complement the spy-3 mutation in Arabidopsis. Overexpression of Spy in transgenic petunia plants affected various GA-regulated processes, including seed germination, shoot elongation, flower initiation, flower development and the expression of a GA- induced gene, GIP. In addition, anther development was inhibited in the transgenic plants following microsporogenesis. The N-terminus of Spy contains tetratricopeptide repeats (TPR). TPR motifs participate in protein-protein interactions, suggesting that Spy is part of a multiprotein complex. To test this hypothesis, we over-expressed the SPY's TPR region without the catalytic domain in transgenic petunia and generated a dominant- negative Spy mutant. The transgenic seeds were able to germinate on paclobutrazol, suggesting an enhanced GA signal. Overexpression of PhSPY in wild type Arabidopsis did not affect plant stature, morphology or flowering time. Consistent with Spy being an O-GlcNAc transferase (OGT), Spy expressed in insect cells was shown to O-GlcNAc modify itself. Consistent with O-GlcNAc modification playing a role in GA signaling, spy mutants had a reduction in the GlcNAc modification of several proteins. After treatment of the GA deficient, gal mutant, with GA3 the GlcNAc modification of proteins of the same size as those affected in spy mutants exhibited a reduction in GlcNAcylation. GA-induced GlcNAcase may be responsible for this de-GlcNAcylation because, treatment of gal with GA rapidly induced an increase in GlcNAcase activity. Several Arabidopsis proteins that interact with the TPR domain of Spy were identified using yeast two-hybrids screens. One of these proteins was GIGANTEA (GI). Consistent with GI and Spy functioning as a complex in the plant the spy-4 was epistatic to gi. These experiments also demonstrated that, in addition to its role in GA signaling, Spy functions in the light signaling pathways controlling hypocotyl elongation and photoperiodic induction of flowering. A second Arabidopsis OGT, SECRET AGENT (SCA), was discovered. Like SPY, SCA O-GlcNAc modifies itself. Although sca mutants do not exhibit dramatic phenotypes, spy/sca double mutants exhibit male and female gamete and embryo lethality, indicating that Spy and SCA have overlapping functions. These results suggest that O-GlcNAc modification is an essential modification in plants that has a role in multiple signaling pathways.