Lm. Brill et al., Expression of MsLEC1- and MsLEC2-antisense genes in alfalfa plant lines causes severe embryogenic, developmental and reproductive abnormalities, PLANT J, 25(4), 2001, pp. 453-461
Although it has been proposed that plant lectins play a number of roles, th
e function of these proteins in normal plant growth and development has bee
n unclear. To analyze the functions of putative alfalfa lectin genes, lines
of transgenic alfalfa plants expressing approximately half of the open rea
ding frame of MsLEC1 or MsLEC2, in the antisense or sense orientation, were
established and analyzed. The antisense plants displayed severe abnormalit
ies in embryogenesis, and both vegetative and reproductive development were
perturbed. Some differences were observed between MsLEC1- and MsLEC2-antis
ense plants, and abnormalities were especially severe during the early stag
es of development in both the primary and secondary transgenic generations.
In contrast, vector-control and sense-transgene plants exhibited normal gr
owth and development. MsLEC1 and MsLEC2 mRNA accumulation levels were reduc
ed in cognate antisense plants, especially during the later stages of embry
ogenesis, but also tended to be low in MsLEC1 sense-transgene plants. Howev
er, correlated with the phenotypic abnormalities observed in the MsLEC1-ant
isense plants was the specific reduction in the accumulation of a candidate
MsLEC1 protein. Our results suggest that the MsLEC1 and MsLEC2 gene produc
ts, in addition to being important for embryogenesis, are required througho
ut alfalfa development.