Flower-enhanced expression of a nuclear-encoded mitochondrial respiratory protein is associated with changes in mitochondrion number.

The mitochondrial Rieske iron-sulfur protein is an obligatory component of the respiratory electron transport chain that is encoded by a single-copy gene in mammals and fungi. In contrast, this protein is encoded by a small gene family in dicotyledonous tobacco and monocotyledonous maize. We cloned four cDNAs from tobacco that encode the mitochondrial Rieske iron-sulfur protein. These clones, along with a previously isolated cDNA, represent five independent members of the gene family that can be divided into three subfamilies. All of these genes were derived from the two progenitor species and were expressed in amphidiploid tobacco. The proteins encoded by these five genes are probably functional because they all contain the universally conserved hexyl peptides necessary for the 2Fe-2S cluster formation. The expression of the Rieske protein gene family is differentially regulated; a 6- to 11-fold higher level of steady state transcripts was found in flowers than in leaves, stems, and roots. Members of at least two subfamilies were preferentially expressed in flowers, indicating that they share a common cis-regulatory element(s), which can respond to a flower-specific signal(s). Although approximately 10 times more transcripts occurred in flowers than in leaves, flower and leaf mitochondria contained a similar amount of the Rieske protein. Flowers, however, contained seven times more Rieske proteins than leaves. These results indicated an increase in mitochondrion number in flowers. High-energy demands during anther development might bring about an increase in mitochondrion numbers in flowers and the flower-enhanced expression of the Rieske protein gene family. Our results suggested that nuclear genes encoding mitochondrial respiratory proteins could sense and respond to changes in energy metabolism and/or changes in mitochondrion numbers.