Authors: Bo Li DengFeng Zhang GuanQing Jia JingRui Dai ShouCai Wang
Publish Date: 2008/11/11
Volume: 27, Issue: 2, Pages: 162-176
Abstract
Although heterosis is widely used in conventional plant breeding its genetic mechanism has not been well understood at the molecular level In this study we identified a highly heterotic hybrid C86052 × W1445 and a low heterotic hybrid C86052 × W245 for yield performance in maize from 33 hybrids obtained from an incomplete diallel mating scheme Using highdensity maize oligomicroarrays we analyzed and compared gene expression profiles of the highly heterotic hybrid its parent lines and the low heterotic hybrid A total of 2366 differentially expressed genes were identified in C86052 × W1445 and its two parents These genes exhibited heterogeneous expression patterns in the hybrid relative to its parents and covering additivity highparent dominance lowparent dominance overdominance underdominance and partialdominance The functions of several genes fell in diverse biological processes including metabolism signal transduction transport biological regulation and development among others Notably among those highly upregulated genes in the hybrid there were genes known to play vital roles in stress tolerance and yield enhancement and groups of transcriptional factors that might contribute to overall enhanced quality of the hybrid Further comparisons between high and the lowheterotic hybrids also revealed a subset of differentially expressed genes Together this genomewide comparison among maize lines exhibiting varying degrees of heterosis during the early developmental phase of immature ears will provide valuable information for further studies on linkage between specific gene expression and phenotype of heterosis
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