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DNA damage in the early primordial anther is closely correlated with stamen arrest in the female flower of cucumber (Cucumis sativus L.)

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Abstract

To investigate the regulatory mechanisms of sex expression in cucumber, morphological observations and biochemical analyses were carried out on inappropriate stamen development of female flowers of cucumber. It was found that developmental arrest of the inappropriate stamen mainly occurs at the anther primordium. This arrest is closely correlated with DNA damage, as detected by TUNEL assay, and might result from anther-specific DNase activation. It was also found that the DNA damage does not lead to cell degeneration, although chromatin condensation is observed in the anther primordia.

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Fig. 1a–g.
Fig. 2a–d.
Fig. 3a, b.
Fig. 4a–g.
Fig. 5.
Fig. 6a–d.

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Abbreviations

DAPI:

4′,6-diamidine-2-phenylindole dihydrochloride

MTT:

3-(4, 5-dimethylthiazol-2-yl)-2,5-diphenyltetrazolium bromide

PCD:

programmed cell death

TUNEL:

TdT-mediated dUTP nick-end labeling

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Acknowledgements

The authors thank Profs. T.-H. Tsao and S.-Y. Hu of Peking University (PKU), R.Z. Sung of the University of California at Berkeley, USA, and H. Ma of the Pennsylvania State University at University Park, USA for their critical reading of the manuscript, Prof. C.-X. He for his help in growing plants, and Prof. Sodmergen, Dr. Q. Zhang, and Dr. Q. He of PKU for technical support. This work was supported by grants to S.-N.B. from the Ministry of Science and Technology of the People's Republic of China (J00-A-005, G19990116) and the National Natural Science Foundation of China (30070361), and to Z.-H.X. from MST. Y.-J. Hao and D.-H. Wang contributed equally to this work.

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  1. Yu-Jin Hao

    Present address: Department of Plant, Cell and Environment, National Institute of Fruit Tree Science, Fujimoto 2-1, Tsukuba, 305-8605, Ibaraki, Japan

Authors and Affiliations

  1. PKU–Yale Joint Research Center of Agricultural and Plant Molecular Biology, National Key Laboratory of Protein Engineering and Plant Gene Engineering, College of Life Sciences, Peking University, 5 Yiheyuan Road, 100871, Beijing, China

    Yu-Jin Hao, Dong-Hui Wang, Yi-Ben Peng, Su-Lan Bai, Li-Yun Xu, Zhi-Hong Xu & Shu-Nong Bai

  2. Department of Biological Sciences and Biotechnology, Tsinghua University, 100084, Beijing, China

    Yi-Qin Li

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Correspondence to Shu-Nong Bai.

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Hao, YJ., Wang, DH., Peng, YB. et al. DNA damage in the early primordial anther is closely correlated with stamen arrest in the female flower of cucumber (Cucumis sativus L.). Planta 217, 888–895 (2003). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00425-003-1064-x

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