Abstract
The regulation of mitochondrial morphology, intracellular distribution and inheritance are vital for plant growth and development. An evolutionarily conserved mitochondrial GTPase, MIRO1, has been previously shown to be required for embryogenesis in Arabidopsis thaliana (Yamaoka & Leaver, Plant Cell 2008), although the mechanism involved is still unclear. We created transgenic Arabidopsis plants of which mitochondria are visualized by GFP fluorescence in the egg cells and early-stage embryos. Two-photon laser scanning microscopy revealed that the miro1 mutant egg cell and embryos exhibit abnormally enlarged mitochondrial morphology, leading to the defective mitochondrial inheritance. Our findings suggest that MIRO1 plays a vital role for regulating mitochondrial morphology and inheritance during embryogenesis.
