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Genome-wide analysis of gene expression profiles during ear development of maize

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Abstract

In order to unravel the molecular mechanism of maize ear development, a microarray containing ~56,000 probes was used to monitor the gene expression profiles of ears at four developmental stages. The results showed that 2,794 genes, accounting for 5.0% of the total probes, changed significantly during ear development. Among the 2,794 genes, 1,844 genes differentially expressed during the spikelet differentiation phase, 836 genes during the floret primordium differentiation phase and 645 genes during the floret organ differentiation phase. Hierarchical clustering revealed that the differentially expressed genes had 9 major expression patterns. Based on Mips Functional Catalogue, 684 differentially expressed genes were grouped into at least one functional category, including metabolism (30.4%), protein related function (29.2%), biogenesis of cellular components (15.4%) and transcription (13.7%). The analysis revealed that the auxin signaling pathway play an important role in ear development. Moreover, regulation of some transcription factors may play a key role during ear development. RT-PCR and in situ hybridization for some selected genes validated our microarray data and supplied additional information on ear developmental processes.

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Acknowledgments

The authors thank Dr. Jingrui Dai and Qifeng Xu (China Agricultural University) for offering maize seeds, Dr. Zhen Su (China Agricultural University) and Wenying Xu (Institute of Genetics and Development) for helpful advice in microarray design and hybridization. We also thank Dr. Patrick S Schnable (Iowa State University, USA) and Dr. Xinmin Li (University of Chicago, USA) for their pre-review and helpful suggestions. This work was supported by the National Basic Research Program of China (2006CB101700).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. State Key Laboratory of Agrobiotechnology and National Center for Plant Gene Research (Beijing), China Agricultural University, Beijing, 100094, China

    Yun Zhu, Junjie Fu, Tingsong Liu, Zhiwei Jia, Jiashi Wang, Ying Jin, Yun Lian, Meng Wang & Wei Hou

  2. College of Biology Science and Engineering, Heibei University of Science and Technology, Shijiazhuang, 050018, China

    Yun Zhu

  3. Institute of Crop Sciences, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Southern Street of Zhongguancun 12, Beijing, 100081, China

    Jinpeng Zhang, Jun Zheng & Guoying Wang

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  1. Yun Zhu
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  2. Junjie Fu
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Correspondence to Guoying Wang.

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Yun Zhu and Junjie Fu authors contributed equally to this paper.

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Zhu, Y., Fu, J., Zhang, J. et al. Genome-wide analysis of gene expression profiles during ear development of maize. Plant Mol Biol 70, 63–77 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11103-009-9457-2

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