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Heterosis in early seed development: a comparative study of F1 embryo and endosperm tissues 6 days after fertilization

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Abstract

Heterosis specifies the superior performance of heterozygous individuals and although used in plant breeding the underlying molecular mechanisms still remain largely elusive. In this study, we demonstrate the manifestation of heterosis in hybrid maize embryo and endosperm tissue 6 days after fertilization in crosses of several inbred lines. We provide a comparative analysis of heterosis-associated gene expression in these tissues by a combined approach of suppression subtractive hybridization and microarray hybridizations. Non-additive expression pattern indicated a trans-regulatory mechanism to act early after fertilization in hybrid embryo and endosperm although the majority of genes showed mid-parental expression levels in embryo and dosage dependent expression levels in endosperm. The consistent expression pattern within both tissues and both inbred line genotype combinations of genes coding for chromatin related proteins pointed to heterosis-related epigenetic processes. These and genes involved in other biological processes, identified in this study, might provide entry points for the investigation of regulatory networks associated with the specification of heterosis.

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Acknowledgments

For providing seeds of the inbred lines used in this study we thank Prof. Dr. A. Melchinger (University of Hohenheim) and his co-workers. We thank T. Okamoto for allocating cDNAs of zygotes and two-celled embryos and André Schützenmeister for data processing for GEO submission. Furthermore we are especially grateful to Petra von Wiegen, Marlis Nissen and Sabina Miaskowska for excellent technical help with embryo and endosperm isolation and microarray hybridization. For assisting the glass house work we are thankful to Bärbel Hagemann. We thank Prof. Dr. Erhard Kranz and Prof. Dr. Horst Lörz for providing working space and support. This work was financially supported by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) grant SCHO746/2 within the framework program “heterosis in plants” and by the Eiselen-Foundation (Ulm).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Biocenter Klein Flottbek, University of Hamburg, Ohnhorststraße 18, 22609, Hamburg, Germany

    Stephanie Jahnke, Alexander Thiemann & Stefan Scholten

  2. General Motors Powertrain Germany GmbH, 65423, Rüsselsheim, Germany

    Barbara Sarholz

  3. Institute of Plant Breeding, Seed Science, and Population Genetics, University of Hohenheim, 70599, Stuttgart, Germany

    Vera Kühr & Hartwig H. Geiger

  4. Warwick HRI, Wellesbourne, University of Warwick, Warwickshire, CV35 9EF, UK

    José F. Gutiérrez-Marcos

  5. Bioinformatics Department, Institute for Crop Production and Grassland Research, University of Hohenheim, 70593, Stuttgart, Germany

    Hans-Peter Piepho

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  1. Stephanie Jahnke
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  2. Barbara Sarholz
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  3. Alexander Thiemann
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  8. Stefan Scholten
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Stefan Scholten.

Additional information

Communicated by T. Luebberstedt.

Contribution to the special issue “Heterosis in Plants”.

The microarray data of this study were deposited in Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO) at the National Centre for Biotechnology Information (NCBI) with the series entry GSE17754.

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Jahnke, S., Sarholz, B., Thiemann, A. et al. Heterosis in early seed development: a comparative study of F1 embryo and endosperm tissues 6 days after fertilization. Theor Appl Genet 120, 389–400 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00122-009-1207-y

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