Vol.:(0123456789) 1 3 Plant Cell Rep (2018) 37:293–306 DOI 10.1007/s00299-017-2230-0 ORIGINAL ARTICLE GID1 expression is associated with ovule development of sexual and apomictic plants Luciana Gomes Ferreira 1,2  · Diva Maria de Alencar Dusi 2  · André Southernman Teixeira Irsigler 2  · Ana Cristina Meneses Mendes Gomes 2  · Marta Adelina Mendes 3  · Lucia Colombo 3  · Vera Tavares de Campos Carneiro 1,2   Received: 27 June 2017 / Accepted: 18 October 2017 / Published online: 28 October 2017 © Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany 2017 detected in the megaspore mother cell (MMC) of sexual and apomictic B. brizantha. Only in the apomictic plants, expres- sion was also observed in the surrounding nucellar cells, a region in which aposporous initial cells diferentiate to form the aposporic embryo sac. AtGID1a ectopic expression in Arabidopsis determines the formation of MMC-like cells in the nucellus, close to the MMC, that did not own MMC identity. Our results suggest that GID1 might be involved in the proper diferentiation of a single MMC during ovule development and provide valuable information on the role of GID1 in sexual and apomictic reproduction. Keywords Apomixis · Brachiaria brizantha · Gibberellin · GID1 · Ovule development · Plant reproduction Introduction Gibberellins are plant hormones directly related to impor- tant plant growth and development events including seed Abstract Key message BbrizGID1 is expressed in the nucellus of apomictic Brachiaria brizantha, previous to aposporous initial diferentiation. AtGID1a overexpression triggers diferentiation of Arabidopsis thaliana MMC-like cells, suggesting its involvement in ovule development. Abstract GIBBERELLIN-INSENSITIVE DWARF1 (GID1) is a gibberellin receptor previously identifed in plants and associated with reproductive development, including ovule formation. In this work, we characterized the Brachiaria brizantha GID1 gene (BbrizGID1). BbrizGID1 showed up to 92% similarity to GID1-like gibberellin recep- tors of other plants of the Poaceae family and around 58% to GID1-like gibberellin receptors of Arabidopsis thaliana. BbrizGID1 was more expressed in ovaries at megasporo- genesis than in ovaries at megagametogenesis of both sexual and apomictic plants. In ovules, BbrizGID1 transcripts were Communicated by Xian Sheng Zhang. Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (doi:10.1007/s00299-017-2230-0) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users. * Vera Tavares de Campos Carneiro vera.carneiro@embrapa.br Luciana Gomes Ferreira biolgf@yahoo.com.br Diva Maria de Alencar Dusi diva.dusi@embrapa.br André Southernman Teixeira Irsigler andre.irsigler@embrapa.br Ana Cristina Meneses Mendes Gomes ana.gomes@embrapa.br Marta Adelina Mendes martamendes86@gmail.com Lucia Colombo lucia.colombo@unimi.it 1 Department of Biology, University of Brasília-UnB, Campus Darcy Ribeiro S/N–Asa Norte, Brasília, DF 70910-900, Brazil 2 Embrapa Genetic Resources and Biotechnology, Parque Estação Biológica, PqEB Av. W5 Norte, Caixa Postal 02372, Brasília, DF 70770-917, Brazil 3 Dipartimento di Bioscienze, Università degli Studi di Milano, Via Celoria 26, 20133 Milan, Italy