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Investigation of miR396 and growth-regulating factor regulatory network in maize grain filling

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Abstract

The miR396 and growth-regulating factor (GRF) regulatory network is evolutionarily conserved among plant species. The orthologous GRF genes in rice were involved in regulating grain development, and targeted by miR396. However, there are still no more information about the involvement of miR396 and GRF genes in maize grain. In this article, RNA sequencing was performed on the developing maize kernels to analyze the dynamic profiles of miR396 and GRF genes and explore their possible regulatory roles during maize effective grain filling. Our results showed that GRF genes were also the conserved targets of miR396 in maize, according to computational prediction and validated by degradome sequencing. MiR396 expressed high and gradually declined with advancing maize grain filling, significant negatively correlated with its target GRF genes, which mostly increased continuously. Our test also provided a testimony of miR396-GRF network in different regulations between the development of maize embryo and endosperm by real-time quantitative PCR. And further analysis of expression pattern suggested that miR319, miR166, and RDR might interact with miR396-GRF network during grain development in maize. This study mainly provided a valuable foundation for future comprehensive analysis of miR396-GRF network, and further research work is needed to confirm the regulatory roles of miR396 and GRF genes during grain filling in maize.

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Acknowledgments

This work was supported by a grant from the National Nature Foundation of China (31370033).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Shihezi University, 22 Beisi Road, Shihezi, 832003, China

    Ke Zhang & Jianxin Niu

  2. National Key Laboratory of Wheat and Maize Crop Science, Collaborative Innovation Center of Henan Grain Crops, College of Agronomy, Henan Agricultural University, Zhengzhou, 450002, China

    Ke Zhang, Xia Shi, Xiaofeng Zhao, Dong Ding & Jihua Tang

Authors
  1. Ke Zhang
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  2. Xia Shi
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  3. Xiaofeng Zhao
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  4. Dong Ding
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  5. Jihua Tang
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  6. Jianxin Niu
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Jianxin Niu.

Additional information

Communicated by E. Schleiff.

Electronic supplementary material

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11738_2014_1767_MOESM1_ESM.tif

Supplementary material 1 Fig. S1 Representation of the GO-term analysis for miR396 targeted GRF genes. The most notable GO categories are ATP binding, nucleus, hydrolase activity and regulation of transcription. (TIFF 24 kb)

11738_2014_1767_MOESM2_ESM.tif

Supplementary material 2 Fig. S2 Representation of purine pathway (map00230) in which GIF2 involved. The red rectangle representing RNA polymerase (EC: 2. 7. 7. 6) of purine pathway coded by GIF2 gene. (TIFF 115 kb)

11738_2014_1767_MOESM3_ESM.tif

Supplementary material 3 Fig. S3 Representation of pyrimidine pathway (map00240) in which GIF2 involved. The red rectangle representing RNA polymerase (EC: 2. 7. 7. 6) of pyrimidine pathway coded by GIF2 gene. (TIFF 80 kb)

11738_2014_1767_MOESM4_ESM.doc

Supplementary material 3 Table S1 Summary of small RNAs classes during maize grain filling. Table S2 The targets of miR396, miR166 and miR319 identified by degradome sequencing in this study. Table S3 The different expression of miRNA (RPM) during maize kernel development from 15 to 35 DAP. Table S4 The different expression of GIFs and GRFs (RPKM) during maize kernel development from 15 to 35 DAP. A: the different expression of GIFs and GRFs in maize line Chang7-2. B: the different expression of GIFs and GRFs in maize line Zheng58. Table S5 The different expressed target genes of miRNA during maize kernel development from 15 to 35 DAP, which might interact with miR396. (DOC 208 kb)

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Zhang, K., Shi, X., Zhao, X. et al. Investigation of miR396 and growth-regulating factor regulatory network in maize grain filling. Acta Physiol Plant 37, 28 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11738-014-1767-6

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11738-014-1767-6

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