ORIGINAL RESEARCH published: 29 November 2019 doi: 10.3389/fpls.2019.01566 A Plant-SpecificTGS1 Homolog Influences Gametophyte Development in Sexual Tetraploid Paspalum notatum Ovules Carolina Colono 1, Juan Pablo A. Ortiz 1, Hugo R. Permingeat 1, Eduardo Daniel Souza Canada 1, Lorena A. Siena 1, Nicolás Spoto 1, Florencia Galdeano 2, Francisco Espinoza 2, Olivier Leblanc 3 and Silvina C. Pessino 1* 1 Molecular Biology Laboratory, IICAR, CONICET, Universidad Nacional de Rosario, Rosario, Argentina, 2 Genetics Laboratory, IBONE, CONICET, Universidad Nacional del Nordeste, Corrientes, Argentina, 3 UMR DIADE, IRD, Univ. Montpellier, Montpellier, France Edited by: Tzung-Fu Hsieh, North Carolina State University, Aposporous apomictic plants form clonal maternal seeds by inducing the emergence of United States non-reduced (2n) embryo sacs in the ovule nucellus and the development of embryos by Reviewed by: parthenogenesis. In previous work, we reported a plant-specificTRIMETHYLGUANOSINE John G. Carman, Utah State University, United States SYNTHASE 1 (TGS1) gene (PN_TGS1-like) showing expression levels positively Ross Andrew Bicknell, correlated with sexuality rates in facultative apomictic Paspalum notatum. PN_ TGS1-like The New Zealand Institute for Plant & displayed contrasting in situ hybridization patterns in apomictic and sexual plant ovules Food Research Ltd, New Zealand Diego Hojsgaard, from premeiosis to anthesis. Here we transformed sexual P. notatum with a TGS1-like University of Göttingen, Germany antisense construction under a constitutive promoter, in order to produce lines with *Correspondence: reduced transcript representation. Antisense plants developed prominent trichomes on Silvina C. Pessino
[email protected] the adaxial leaf surface, a trait absent from control genotypes. Reproductive development analysis revealed occasional formation of twin ovules.