RiceAntherNet: a gene co-expression network for identifying anther and pollen development genes

Corresponding author: Zoe A. Wilson

In plants, normal anther and pollen development involves many important biological events and complex molecular regulatory coordination. Understanding gene regulatory relationships during male reproductive development is essential for fundamental biology and crop breeding. In this work, we developed a rice gene co-expression network for anther development (RiceAntherNet) that allows prediction of gene regulatory relationships during pollen development. RiceAntherNet was generated from 57 rice anther tissue microarrays across all developmental stages. The microarray datasets from nine rice male sterile mutants (雄性不育突变体), including msp1-4, ostdl1a, gamyb-2, tip2, udt1-1, tdr, eat1-1, ptc1 and mads3-4, were used to explore and test the network. Among the changed genes, three clades showing differential expression patterns were constructed to identify genes associated with pollen formation. Many of these have known roles in pollen development, for example, seven genes in Clade 1 (OsABCG15, OsLAP5, OsLAP6, DPW, CYP703A3, OsNP1 and OsCP1) are involved in rice pollen wall formation. Furthermore, Clade 1 contained 12 genes whose predicted orthologs in Arabidopsis have been reported as key during pollen development and may play similar roles in rice. Genes in Clade 2 are expressed earlier than Clade 1 (anther stages 2–9), while genes in Clade 3 are expressed later (stages 10–12). RiceAntherNet serves as a valuable tool for identifying novel genes during plant anther and pollen development. A website is provided (https://www.cpib.ac.uk/anther/riceindex.html) to present the expression profiles for gene characterization. This will assist in determining the key relationships between genes, thus enabling characterization of critical genes associated with anther and pollen regulatory networks.

作者通过57个包含所有发育阶段水稻花药组织的微阵列构建了一个水稻花药发育基因共表达网络（RiceAntherNet），通过与9个雄性不育突变体的比较，鉴定出3类不同表达模式与花粉形成相关的基因。其中第一类基因包含7个参与花粉壁形成的基因，另外有12个基因显示在拟南芥的同源基因在花粉发育中扮演重要作用。第二类基因要比第一类基因表达早，而第三类基因要比第一类基因表达晚。作者构建了一个RiceAntherNet的在线网站，方便所有人进行基因查询和深度挖掘。

个人简介：诺丁汉大学植物学和微生物学学士；诺丁汉大学植物科学博士。

doi: 10.1111/tpj.13744