RNA editing analysis of ATP synthase genes in the cotton cytoplasmic male sterile line H276A

Background Pollen development is an energy-consuming process that particularly occurs during meiosis. Low levels of adenosine triphosphate (ATP) may cause cell death, resulting in CMS (cytoplasmic male sterility). DNA sequence differences in ATP synthase genes have been revealed between the N- and S-cytoplasms in the cotton CMS system. However, very few data are available at the RNA level. In this study, we compared five ATP synthase genes in the H276A, H276B and fertile F1 (H276A/H268) lines using RNA editing, RNA blotting and quantitative real time-PCR (qRT-PCR) to explore their contribution to CMS. A molecular marker for identifying male sterile cytoplasm (MSC) was also developed.