From pollen actin to crop male sterility

Actin plays an important role in the life activity of animal and plant cells. Pollen cells have plenty of actin whose structure and characteristics are very similar to the animal actin. The nucleotide sequence and amino acid sequence of plant actin gene are very similar to those of the animal gene. The content of pollen actin from male sterile plants is much more lower than that from its maintainer plants. The expression of actin gene is organ-specific during the plant development. The expression quantity of actin gene in pollen is much more higher than those from root, stem and leaf. The expression plasmid of the anti-sense actin gene was constructed, transferred to the protoplasts of wheat and tomato to inhibit the expression of actin gene in pollen and thus the male sterile plants of wheat and tomato were obtained. The actin in pollens from the transgenic plants was reduced significantly, whereas the pistil was not affected. This study might pave a new way to breeding male sterile lines for the application of hybrid vigor of wheat and tomato.