Phylogenetic and Expression Analysis of CENH3 and APOLLO Genes in Sexual and Apomictic Boechera Species (original) (raw)

Apomictic plants (reproducing via asexual seeds), unlike sexual individuals, avoid meiosis and egg cell fertilization. Consequently, apomixis is very important for fixing maternal genotypes in the next plant generations. Despite the progress in the study of apomixis, molecular and genetic regulation of the latter remains poorly understood. So far APOLLO gene encoding aspartate glutamate aspartate aspartate histidine exonuclease is one of the very few described genes associated with apomixis in Boechera species. The centromere-specific histone H3 variant encoded by CENH3 gene is essential for cell division. Mutations in CENH3 disrupt chromosome segregation during mitosis and meiosis since the attachment of spindle microtubules to a mutated form of the CENH3 histone fails. This paper presents in silico characteristic of APOLLO and CENH3 genes, which may affect apomixis. Furthermore, we characterize the structure of CENH3 by bioinformatic tools, study expression levels of APOLLO and CE...