Bo Price; Kaylynn Ashby; Marianne Maughan, Utah State University
Apomixis is an asexual reproductive process that omits the reducing step of meiosis (apomeiosis) thereby producing unreduced eggs that will develop into embryos without the need of gamete fusion (parthenogenesis). The lack of reduced gametes leads to progenies that have identical genomes, i.e., diversification by egg and sperm fertilization is prevented, from generation to generation. Facultative apomixis is the ability to switch from apomixis to sexual reproduction by completing the meiosis divisions to produce reduced haploid gametes. It is understood that the switch to sexual meiosis in facultative apomixis is triggered by environmental stress signals. Sexual reproduction is induced by stress to create a competitive advantage by allowing genetic diversity to increase the possibility of species adaptability and survival. Boechera is a genus of flowering angiosperms that has multiple facultative apomictic species. To understand the molecular cascade that is triggered to cause apomixis to switch to sexual reproduction, Boechera facultative apomictic ovaries were treated exogenously with hydrogen peroxide to induce oxidative stress. RNAseq is being used to identify gene expression differences between apomictic and sex-induced ovary development as a first step toward elucidating the molecular switch from apomeiosis to meiosis.