Single-Parent Expression Is a General Mechanism Driving Extensive Complementation of Non-syntenic Genes in Maize Hybrids.
Curr Biol
; 28(3): 431-437.e4, 2018 02 05.
Article
in En
| MEDLINE
| ID: mdl-29358068
ABSTRACT
Maize (Zea mays L.) displays an exceptional degree of structural genomic diversity [1, 2]. In addition, variation in gene expression further contributes to the extraordinary phenotypic diversity and plasticity of maize. This study provides a systematic investigation on how distantly related homozygous maize inbred lines affect the transcriptomic plasticity of their highly heterozygous F1 hybrids. The classical dominance model of heterosis explains the superiority of hybrid plants by the complementation of deleterious parental alleles by superior alleles of the second parent at many loci [3]. Genes active in one inbred line but inactive in another represent an extreme instance of allelic diversity defined as single-parent expression [4]. We observed on average â¼1,000 such genes in all inbred line combinations during primary root development. These genes consistently displayed expression complementation (i.e., activity) in their hybrid progeny. Consequently, extreme expression complementation is a general mechanism that results on average in â¼600 additionally active genes and their encoded biological functions in hybrids. The modern maize genome is complemented by a set of non-syntenic genes, which emerged after the separation of the maize and sorghum lineages and lack syntenic orthologs in any other grass species [5]. We demonstrated that non-syntenic genes are the driving force of gene expression complementation in hybrids. Among those, the highly diversified families of bZIP and bHLH transcription factors [6] are systematically overrepresented. In summary, extreme gene expression complementation extensively shapes the transcriptomic plasticity of maize hybrids and might therefore be one factor controlling the developmental plasticity of hybrids.
Key words
Full text:
1
Collection:
01-internacional
Database:
MEDLINE
Main subject:
Zea mays
/
Synteny
/
Transcriptome
/
Hybridization, Genetic
Type of study:
Prognostic_studies
Language:
En
Journal:
Curr Biol
Journal subject:
BIOLOGIA
Year:
2018
Document type:
Article
Affiliation country:
Germany