Project description:Marigold (Tagetes erecta L.) is an important ornamental plant with a wide variety of colors. Despite its economic value, there are few biochemical and molecular basic studies of flower color in marigold. To study the mechanism behind its color formation, metabolomics analysis and de novo cDNA sequencing was performed on marigold inbred line ‘V-01’ and its petal color mutant ‘V-01M’, in four flower developmental stages.
Project description:Heterosis is the phenomenon whereby the progeny of particular inbred lines have enhanced agronomic performance relative to both parents. Although several hypotheses have been proposed to explain this fundamental biological phenomenon, the responsible molecular mechanisms have not been determined. The maize inbred lines B73 and Mo17 produce a heterotic F1 hybrid. Global patterns of gene expression were compared in seedlings of these three genotypes using a microarray that contains 13,999 cDNAs. Using an estimated 15% false discovery rate as a cut-off, 1,367 ESTs (9.8%) were identified as being significantly differentially expressed among genotypes. All possible modes of gene action were observed, including additivity, high- and low-parent dominance, under-dominance, and over-dominance. The largest proportion of the ESTs (78%, 1,062/1,367) exhibited expression patterns that are not statistically distinguishable from additivity. Even so, 22% of the differentially regulated genes exhibited non-additive modes of gene expression. Classified on the basis of significant pair-wise comparisons of genotype means, 181 of these 305 genes exhibited high-parent dominance and 23 exhibited low-parent dominance. In addition, 44 genes exhibited under- or over-dominant gene action. These findings are consistent with the hypothesis that multiple molecular mechanisms contribute to heterosis, including over-dominance Keywords: Genotype Comparison