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In spite of commercial use of heterosis in agriculture, the molecular basis of heterosis is poorly understood. It was observed that maize hybrid Zong3/87-1 exhibited an earlier onset or heterosis in radicle emergence. To get insights into the underlying mechanism of heterosis in radicle emergence, differential proteomic analysis between hybrid and its parental lines was performed. In total, the number of differentially expressed protein spots between hybrid and its parental lines in dry and 24 h imbibed seed embryos were 134 and 191, respectively, among which 47.01% (63/134) and 34.55% (66/191) protein spots displayed nonadditively expressed pattern. Remarkably, 54.55% of nonadditively accumulated proteins in 24 h imbibed seed embryos displayed above or equal to the level of the higher parent patterns. Moreover, 155 differentially expressed protein spots were identified, which were grouped into eight functional classes, including transcription & translation, energy & metabolism, signal transduction, disease & defense, storage protein, transposable element, cell growth & division and unclassified proteins. In addition, one of the upregulated proteins in F1 hybrids was ZmACT2, a homolog of Arabidopsis thaliana ACT7 (AtACT7). Expressing ZmACT2 driven by the AtACT7 promoter partially complemented the low germination phenotype in the Atact7 mutant. These results indicated that hybridization between two parental lines can cause changes in the expression of a variety of proteins, and it is concluded that the altered pattern of gene expression at translational level in the hybrid may be responsible for the observed heterosis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Previous studies revealed that GA content and metabolism are positively correlated with a faster shoot growth rate of hybrid, and recently, genes participating in both GA biosynthesis and GA response pathways were also found to be differentially expressed between wheat hybrid and its parental inbreds. In this study, an up-regulated GA 20-oxidase gene in a maize hybrid, designated ZmGA20, was cloned. ZmGA20 contains an open reading frame (ORF) encoding 391 amino acid residues. BLASTX searches in GenBank revealed that the ZmGA20 is homologous to the sequences of GA20ox proteins from different species, and analysis also indicated that ZmGA20 had typical features of GA 20-oxidase proteins, including a “LPWKET” sequence. Semi-quantitative RT-PCR analysis showed that ZmGA20 was expressed in different tissues and/or organs. The expression level of ZmGA20 in the hybrid was higher than that in two parents (in roots, leaves, stems and embryo, and ears). The abundance of ZmGA20 transcript was equal to that of the highly expressed parents, which provided molecular evidence for the observed GA content heterosis in maize hybrids. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Differential gene expression between hybrids and their parents is considered to be associated with heterosis. However, the physiological functions and possible contribution to heterosis of these differentially expressed genes are unknown. We have isolated one hybrid upregulated gene encoding putative wheat ADP-ribosylation factor, designated TaARF. In this study, real-time quantitative reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction analysis indicated that the TaARF transcript was preferentially expressed in root, node and crown, and the accumulation of TaARF mRNA in hybrid was more than 1.5-fold higher than that in two parents. In order to understand possible roles of the putative wheat ARF gene, TaARF was overexpressed in Arabidopsis, and the transgenic plants were characterized. We show that ectopic overexpression of TaARF in Arabidopsis leads to increased leaf area, increased growth rate and earlier transition to flowering, suggesting that TaARF plays significant roles in growth and development. This study provides evidence demonstrating that TaARF plays important roles in growth and development and we speculate that the upregulated expression of this gene might contribute to the heterosis observed in wheat root and leaf growth. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Ribosomal proteins (RPs) are major components of ribosomes, and are regulated both developmentally and environmentally in plants. In this study, by using in silico cloning approach 15 putative wheat ribosomal protein (TaRP) genes with complete open reading frame (ORF) were identified. The amino acid sequence analysis indicated that several structural amino acid motifs with high similarity to that of mammalian RPs, such as basic and acid residues, zinc finger motif and nuclear localization signals, existed in these putative wheat RP genes. Genomic sequences in coding region of six TaRP genes were obtained, and 1–4 introns were identified in different TaRP genes, the intron patterns were also determined and compared to that of corresponding genes from rice and Arabidopsis. In silico expression analysis of the 14 putative wheat RP genes indicated that they were abundantly expressed in various tissues, and transcript amounts for most of ribosomal protein genes were highest in rapidly growing tissues, such as crown. The expression patterns of 11 TaRP genes were significantly correlated (r =0.87, P <0.05), suggesting that they were regulated by coordinate gene expression. Seven putative wheat RP genes were mapped in 21 chromosome bins on 11 chromosomes by in silico mapping. Moreover, it was interesting to note that TaRP genes were differentially expressed between hybrid F1 and parents in root and leaf. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]