Campus Units
Genetics, Development and Cell Biology, Agronomy, Statistics, Center for Plant Genomics
Document Type
Article
Publication Version
Published Version
Publication Date
2-2014
Journal or Book Title
The Plant Journal
Volume
77
Issue
3
First Page
380
Last Page
392
DOI
10.1111/tpj.12394
Abstract
The midribs of maize brown midrib (bm) mutants exhibit a reddish‐brown color associated with reductions in lignin concentration and alterations in lignin composition. Here, we report the mapping, cloning, and functional and biochemical analyses of the bm2 gene. The bm2 gene was mapped to a small region of chromosome 1 that contains a putative methylenetetrahydrofolate reductase (MTHFR) gene, which is down‐regulated in bm2 mutant plants. Analyses of multiple Mu‐induced bm2‐Mu mutant alleles confirmed that this constitutively expressed gene is bm2. Yeast complementation experiments and a previously published biochemical characterization show that the bm2 gene encodes a functional MTHFR. Quantitative RT‐PCR analyses demonstrated that the bm2 mutants accumulate substantially reduced levels of bm2 transcript. Alteration of MTHFR function is expected to influence accumulation of the methyl donor S‐adenosyl‐l‐methionine (SAM). Because SAM is consumed by two methyltransferases in the lignin pathway (Ye et al., 1994), the finding that bm2 encodes a functional MTHFR is consistent with its lignin phenotype. Consistent with this functional assignment of bm2, the expression patterns of genes in a variety of SAM‐dependent or ‐related pathways, including lignin biosynthesis, are altered in the bm2 mutant. Biochemical assays confirmed that bm2 mutants accumulate reduced levels of lignin with altered composition compared to wild‐type. Hence, this study demonstrates a role for MTHFR in lignin biosynthesis.
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 License.
Copyright Owner
The Authors
Copyright Date
2013
Language
en
File Format
application/pdf
Recommended Citation
Tang, Ho Man; Liu, Sanzhen; Hill-Skinner, Sarah; Wu, Wei; Reed, Danielle; Yeh, Cheng-Ting; Nettleton, Dan; and Schnable, Patrick S., "The maize brown midrib2 (bm2) gene encodes a methylenetetrahydrofolate reductase that contributes to lignin accumulation" (2014). Statistics Publications. 189.
https://lib.dr.iastate.edu/stat_las_pubs/189
Included in
Agriculture Commons, Agronomy and Crop Sciences Commons, Computational Biology Commons, Molecular Genetics Commons, Plant Breeding and Genetics Commons
Comments
This is an article published as Tang, Ho Man, Sanzhen Liu, Sarah Hill‐Skinner, Wei Wu, Danielle Reed, Cheng‐Ting Yeh, Dan Nettleton, and Patrick S. Schnable. "The maize brown midrib2 (bm2) gene encodes a methylenetetrahydrofolate reductase that contributes to lignin accumulation." The Plant Journal 77, no. 3 (2014): 380-392. doi: 10.1111/tpj.12394.