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Relationship, evolutionary fate and function of two maize co-orthologs of rice GW2 associated with kernel size and weight.

ABSTRACT: BACKGROUND: In rice, the GW2 gene, found on chromosome 2, controls grain width and weight. Two homologs of this gene, ZmGW2-CHR4 and ZmGW2-CHR5, have been found in maize. In this study, we investigated the relationship, evolutionary fate and putative function of these two maize genes. RESULTS: The two genes are located on duplicated maize chromosomal regions that show co-orthologous relationships with the rice region containing GW2. ZmGW2-CHR5 is more closely related to the sorghum counterpart than to ZmGW2-CHR4. Sequence comparisons between the two genes in eight diverse maize inbred lines revealed that the functional protein domain of both genes is completely conserved, with no non-synonymous polymorphisms identified. This suggests that both genes may have conserved functions, a hypothesis that was further confirmed through linkage, association, and expression analyses. Linkage analysis showed that ZmGW2-CHR4 is located within a consistent quantitative trait locus (QTL) for one-hundred kernel weight (HKW). Association analysis with a diverse panel of 121 maize inbred lines identified one single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) in the promoter region of ZmGW2-CHR4 that was significantly associated with kernel width (KW) and HKW across all three field experiments examined in this study. SNPs or insertion/deletion polymorphisms (InDels) in other regions of ZmGW2-CHR4 and ZmGW2-CHR5 were also found to be significantly associated with at least one of the four yield-related traits (kernel length (KL), kernel thickness (KT), KW and HKW). None of the polymorphisms in either maize gene are similar to each other or to the 1 bp InDel causing phenotypic variation in rice. Expression levels of both maize genes vary over ear and kernel developmental stages, and the expression level of ZmGW2-CHR4 is significantly negatively correlated with KW. CONCLUSIONS: The sequence, linkage, association and expression analyses collectively showed that the two maize genes represent chromosomal duplicates, both of which function to control some of the phenotypic variation for kernel size and weight in maize, as does their counterpart in rice. However, the different polymorphisms identified in the two maize genes and in the rice gene indicate that they may cause phenotypic variation through different mechanisms.

SUBMITTER: Li Q

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3017803 | biostudies-literature | 2010

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Relationship, evolutionary fate and function of two maize co-orthologs of rice GW2 associated with kernel size and weight.

Li Qing Q Li Lin L Yang Xiaohong X Warburton Marilyn L ML Bai Guanghong G Dai Jingrui J Li Jiansheng J Yan Jianbing J

BMC plant biology 20100714

<h4>Background</h4>In rice, the GW2 gene, found on chromosome 2, controls grain width and weight. Two homologs of this gene, ZmGW2-CHR4 and ZmGW2-CHR5, have been found in maize. In this study, we investigated the relationship, evolutionary fate and putative function of these two maize genes.<h4>Results</h4>The two genes are located on duplicated maize chromosomal regions that show co-orthologous relationships with the rice region containing GW2. ZmGW2-CHR5 is more closely related to the sorghum ...[more]

PMID: 20626916

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Project description:BackgroundMetal tolerance is often an integrative result of metal uptake and distribution, which are fine-tuned by a network of signaling cascades and metal transporters. Thus, with the goal of advancing the molecular understanding of such metal homeostatic mechanisms, comparative RNAseq-based transcriptome analysis was conducted to dissect differentially expressed genes (DEGs) in maize roots exposed to cadmium (Cd) stress.ResultsTo unveil conserved Cd-responsive genes in cereal plants, the obtained 5166 maize DEGs were compared with 2567 Cd-regulated orthologs in rice roots, and this comparison generated 880 universal Cd-responsive orthologs groups composed of 1074 maize DEGs and 981 rice counterparts. More importantly, most of the orthologous DEGs showed coordinated expression pattern between Cd-treated maize and rice, and these include one large orthologs group of pleiotropic drug resistance (PDR)-type ABC transporters, two clusters of amino acid transporters, and 3 blocks of multidrug and toxic compound extrusion (MATE) efflux family transporters, and 3 clusters of heavy metal-associated domain (HMAD) isoprenylated plant proteins (HIPPs), as well as all 4 groups of zinc/iron regulated transporter protein (ZIPs). Additionally, several blocks of tandem maize paralogs, such as germin-like proteins (GLPs), phenylalanine ammonia-lyases (PALs) and several enzymes involved in JA biosynthesis, displayed consistent co-expression pattern under Cd stress. Out of the 1074 maize DEGs, approximately 30 maize Cd-responsive genes such as ZmHIPP27, stress-responsive NAC transcription factor (ZmSNAC1) and 9-cis-epoxycarotenoid dioxygenase (NCED, vp14) were also common stress-responsive genes reported to be uniformly regulated by multiple abiotic stresses. Moreover, the aforementioned three promising Cd-upregulated genes with rice counterparts were identified to be novel Cd-responsive genes in maize. Meanwhile, one maize glutamate decarboxylase (ZmGAD1) with Cd co-modulated rice ortholog was selected for further analysis of Cd tolerance via heterologous expression, and the results suggest that ZmGAD1 can confer Cd tolerance in yeast and tobacco leaves.ConclusionsThese novel findings revealed the conserved function of Cd-responsive orthologs and paralogs, which would be valuable for elucidating the genetic basis of the plant response to Cd stress and unraveling Cd tolerance genes.

Dataset Information

Relationship, evolutionary fate and function of two maize co-orthologs of rice GW2 associated with kernel size and weight.

Publications

Relationship, evolutionary fate and function of two maize co-orthologs of rice GW2 associated with kernel size and weight.

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