Regulation of Gene Expression and Parent-of-Origin Effects in Maize Hybrids
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ABSTRACT: Heterosis (hybrid vigor) refers to the superior performance of hybrid progeny relative to their parents. Although widely exploited in agriculture, the mechanisms responsible for heterosis are not well understood. As a monoecious organism, a given maize plant can be used as both male and female parents of crosses. Regardless of the cross direction, the maize inbred lines B73 and Mo17 produce hybrids that substantially out-perform their parents. These reciprocal hybrids differ phenotypically from each other despite having identical nuclear genomes. Consistent with these phenotypic observations, 30-50% of genes were differentially expressed between these reciprocal hybrids. An eQTL experiment conducted to better understand the regulation of gene expression in inbred and hybrid lines detected ~4,000 eQTL associations. The majority of these eQTL act in trans to regulate expression of genes on other chromosomes. Surprisingly, many of the trans-eQTL, when heterozygous, differentially regulated transcript accumulation in a manner consistent with gene expression in the hybrid being regulated exclusively by the paternally transmitted allele. The design of the eQTL experiment controlled for cytoplasmic and maternal effects, suggesting that widespread paternal genomic imprinting contributes to the regulation of gene expression in maize hybrids. Keywords: eQTL, parent-of-origin
ORGANISM(S): Zea mays
PROVIDER: GSE16136 | GEO | 2009/11/20
SECONDARY ACCESSION(S): PRJNA115035
REPOSITORIES: GEO
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