Expression data of young panicles from microspore mother cell to meiosis of rice

Male sterility is an important trait in hybrid crop breeding. Thermo-sensitive genic male sterility (TGMS) lines, which are male-sterile at restrictive (high) temperatures but convert to male-fertile at permissive (low) temperatures, have been widely utilized in two-line hybrid rice breeding. However, the molecular mechanism underlying TGMS remains unclear. Here we show that the rice (Oryza sativa L.) thermo-sensitive genic male sterile gene 5 (tms5) locus, which in 2010 was present in cultivars occupying more than 71% (2.3 million hectares) of two-line hybrid rice-growing land in China, confers the TGMS trait through a loss-of-function mutation of RNase ZS1, resulting in failure to mediate mRNA decay of three temperature-responsive ubiquitin fusion ribosomal protein L40 genes (UbL40) genes. RNase ZS1, a member of the evolutionarily conserved endonuclease, processed tRNAs in vitro, but does not do so in vivo due to its localization in the cytoplasm. Defective RNase ZS1 in tms5 plants leads to over-accumulation of UbL401, UbL402 and UbL404 mRNAs at restrictive but not permissive temperatures. Over-expression of UbL401 and UbL404 in wild-type plants caused male sterility, whereas knockdown of UbL401 and UbL404 in tms5 plants partially restored the male fertility at restrictive temperatures. Our results uncover a novel mechanism of RNase ZS1-mediated UbL40 mRNA decay which controls TGMS in rice and has potential applications not only of rice but also of other crops.

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