Evolutionary dynamics of a locus of fertility restoration in plants

Abstract

Abstract: In higher plants, hermaphrodites may genetically loose their male fertility through the cytoplasmic male sterility (CMS) system. In radish, a nuclear locus, denoted Rfo, has evolved that is able to counteract the effect of CMS and restore the fertility. This locus encodes three similar genes in tandem that belong to the pentatricopeptide repeat (PPR) family and each gene encloses a tandem repeat of PPR motif. Among the hundreds of members of this family, some play a role in the post-transcriptional gene regulation in organelles (mitochondria and chloroplasts). In this study, we recently sequenced a European non-restorer allelic locus and compare it to the original Rfo restorer allele to investigate its evolutionary dynamics. We conducted bioinformatic analysis to determine the putative border of tandem duplications both at protein motif level and at gene level. Our results present the picture of complex evolution with multiple gene duplications at a fast evolving locus