Identification of anther-specific/predominant genes regulated by gibberellin during development of lily anthers

We successfully identify anther-specific/predominant genes induced by gibberellin (GA) at the microspore stage of lily (Lilium longiflorum) anthers. We used a suppression-subtractive hybridization strategy to identify 22 individual cDNAs followed by a reverse RNA dot plot to determine their specificities at the microspore stage. Of the 22 genes, 12 are clearly anther-specific and three are anther-predominant. Sequence analysis revealed that five anther-specific/predominant genes are novel. The transcripts of anther-specific/predominant genes were differentially detected at the microspore development phase; some began accumulating in level as early as the occurrence of meiosis. When uniconazole, an inhibitor of GA biosynthesis was applied in young lily plants we found that all of the anther-specific/predominant genes, with the exception of LLA-139, were up-regulated by GAs in the anther while only some were responsive to the exogenous addition of 100 μM GA3. In situ hybridization with antisense riboprobes of selected genes in the anther showed a strong signal localized to the tapetal layer. The different actions of GA on gene expression in anthers are discussed.