A novel 7-base pair deletion at a splice site in MS - 2 impairs male fertility via premature tapetum degradation in common bean ( Phaseolis vulgaris L.)

Key message A novel splice-site mutation in the P. vulgarisgene for TETRAKETIDE α-PYRONE REDUCTASE 2 impairs male fertility, and parthenocarpic pod development can be improved by external application of IAA. Abstract Snap bean ( Phaseolus vulgaris L.) is an important vegetable crop in many parts of the world, and the main edible part is the fresh pod. Here, we report the characterization of the genic male sterility ( ms - 2 ) mutant in common bean. Loss of function of MS - 2 accelerates degradation of the tapetum, resulting in a complete male sterility. Through fine-mapping, co-segregation, and re-sequencing analysis, we identified Phvul.003G032100 , which encodes the TETRAKETIDE α-PYRONE REDUCTASE 2 (PvTKPR2) protein in common bean, as the causal gene for MS - 2 . PvTKPR2 is predominantly expressed at the early stages of flower development. A novel 7-bp (+ 6028 bp to + 6034 bp) deletion mutation spans the splice site between the fourth intron and fifth exon, leading to a 9-bp deletion in transcribed mRNA and a 3-amino acid (G210M211V212) deletion in the protein coding sequence of the PvTKPR2 ms−2 gene. The 3-D structural changes in the protein due to the mutation may impair the activities of NAD-dependent epimerase/dehydratase and the NAD(P)-binding domains of PvTKPR2 ms−2 protein. The ms - 2 mutant plants produce many small parthenocarpic pods, and the size of the pods can be doubled by external application of 2 mM indole-3-acetic acid (IAA). Our results demonstrate that a novel mutation in PvTKPR2 impairs male fertility through premature degradation of the tapetum.