Abstract
Heterosis in internode elongation and plant height is commonly observed in hybrid plants, but the molecular basis for the increased internode elongation in hybrids is unknown. In this study, midparent heterosis in plant height was determined in a wheat diallel cross involving 16 hybrids and 8 parents, and real-time PCR was used to analyze alterations in gene expression between hybrids and parents. Significant heterosis of plant height and the first internode in length were observed for all 16 hybrids, but the magnitude of heterosis was variable for different cross combinations. Analysis revealed that the heterosis of the first internode was significantly correlated to that of plant height (r = 0.56, P < 0.05), suggesting that the increased elongation of the first internode is the major contributor to the heterosis in plant height. Real-time PCR analysis exhibited that significant difference in heterosis of gene expression was observed among all cross combinations. Moreover, heterosis of the first internode in length was correlated significantly and positively with expression heterosis of KS, GA3ox2-1, GA20ox2, GA20ox1D, GA-MYB and GID1-1, but significantly and negatively with expression heterosis of GAI and GA2ox-1, which is consistent with our recently proposed model of GAs and heterosis in wheat plant height, suggesting the alteration of GA biosynthesis and response pathways might be responsible for the observed heterosis in plant height.
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Supported by the National Key Basic Research and Development Program of China (Grant No. 2007CB109000), and National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant Nos. 30671297, 30600392, 30871529, 30871577)
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Wang, X., Yao, Y., Peng, H. et al. The relationship of differential expression of genes in GA biosynthesis and response pathways with heterosis of plant height in a wheat diallel cross. Chin. Sci. Bull. 54, 3029–3034 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11434-009-0518-3
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11434-009-0518-3