Compositional and transcriptional analyses of reduced zein kernels derived from the opaque2 mutation and RNAi suppression.

Corn protein is largely made up of a group of nutritionally limited storage proteins known as zein. The reduction of zein can be achieved by a transcriptional mutation, opaque2 (o2), or a transgene targeting zein through RNA interference (RNAi). Zein reduction results in an increase of more nutritionally balanced non-zein proteins, and therefore enhance the overall quality of corn protein. In this study, the composition of mature kernels and the transcriptional profile of developing kernels of these two types of zein reduced kernels were compared. Both zein reduced kernels contained higher levels of lysine and tryptophan and free amino acids were 10-20-folds more abundant than the wild-type counterpart. We also found that free lysine contributed partially to the increased lysine in o2 kernels while protein-bound lysine was mainly responsible for the increased lysine in transgenic zein reduction (TZR) kernels. Although they had relatively similar gene expression patterns in developing endosperm, o2 kernels had greater transcriptional changes than TZR kernels in general. A number of transcripts that were specifically down-regulated in o2 were identified. Many promoter sequences of these transcripts contain putative O2 binding motifs, suggesting that their expression is directly regulated by O2.

Phylogenetic and expression analysis of sucrose phosphate synthase isozymes in plants.

In plants and microbes, sucrose phosphate synthase (SPS) is an important enzyme in sucrose biosynthesis. Several different isozymes of SPS exist in plants. Genomic and EST sequence data from Arabidopsis, rice and maize has been analyzed. This analysis has revealed that the Arabidopsis genome contains four unique SPS genes. The rice databases (Monsanto proprietary, and public databases) contain five unique full-length SPS genes. Using the Monsanto maize EST and genomic sequence databases, we have identified five full length and two partial SPS sequences, bringing the total number of presently known maize SPS genes to at least seven. Phylogenetic analysis of all known SPS sequences revealed several putative evolutionary branches of SPS. We have classified SPS genes into three major groups in higher plants, all with distinct features from the known microbial SPS genes. Furthermore, this analysis suggests evolutionary divergence of monocotyledonous (monocot) and dicotyledonous (dicot) SPS sequences. The evidence suggests that several gene duplication events occurred at various points during evolution, both before and after the monocot/dicot split. It appears that at least one of the major forms of SPS genes may have evolved after the divergence of monocots and dicots. In addition, several more recent gene duplication events may have occurred after maize/rice speciation, giving rise to additional SPS genes in maize. Some of the variants lack one or more of the presently known regulatory sites, implying that this evolutionary divergence may have given rise to enzymes with functional differences. We present evidence from transcript distribution studies using cDNA libraries as well as transcriptional profiling experiments and propose that specific SPS genes have diverse patterns of expression that are sometimes responsive to environmental signals. Our data suggests that higher plant SPS isozymes differ with respect to their patterns of expression and regulation and that our proposed phylogenetic classification reflects specific functional categories for higher plant SPS isozymes.