Gene expression at Suaeda salsa seed germination under salinity

AbstractReverse transcription-quantitative polymerase chain reaction (RT-qPCR) is an important technology to analyse gene expression levels during plant development or in response to different treatments. An important requirement to measure gene expression levels accurately is a properly validated set of reference genes. In this context, we analysed the potential use of 17 candidate reference genes across a diverse set of samples, including several tissues, different stages and environmental conditions, encompassing seed germination and seedling growth in Ricinus communis L. These genes were tested by RT-qPCR and ranked according to the stability of their expression using two different approaches: GeNorm and NormFinder. GeNorm and Normfinder indicated that ACT, POB and PP2AA1 comprise the optimal combination for normalization of gene expression data in inter-tissue (heterogeneous sample panel) studies. We also describe the optimal combination of reference genes for a subset of root, endosperm and cotyledon samples. In general, the most stable genes suggested by GeNorm are very consistent with those indicated by NormFinder, which highlights the strength of the selection of reference genes in our study. We also validated the selected reference genes by normalizing the expression levels of three target genes involved in energy metabolism with the reference genes suggested by GeNorm and NormFinder. The approach used in this study to identify stably expressed genes, and thus potential reference genes, was applied successfully for R. communis and it provides important guidelines for RT-qPCR studies in seeds and seedlings for other species (especially in those cases where extensive microarray data are not available).

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Gene Expression Variation Explains Maize Seed Germination Heterosis

10.21203/rs.3.rs-1162485/v1 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Jiong Wan ◽

Qiyue Wang ◽

Jiawen Zhao ◽

Kuntai Dang ◽

Zhanyong Guo ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Gene Expression ◽

Seed Germination ◽

Metabolic Pathways ◽

Expression Patterns ◽

Parental Line ◽

Gene Expression Variation ◽

Maize Seed ◽

Expression Variation ◽

Reciprocal Crossing ◽

Maize Embryo

Abstract BackgroundHeterosis has been extensively utilization in plant breeding, however, the underlying molecular mechanism remain largely elusive. Maize (Zea mays), which exhibits strong heterosis, is an ideal material for studying heterosis.ResultsIn this study, there is a faster imbibition and development in reciprocal crossing Zhengdan958 hybrids than in their parent lines during seed germination. To investigate the mechanism of heterosis of maize germination, comparative transcriptomic analyses was conducted between reciprocal crossing hybrids and their parental lines. The gene expression patterns showed that 1324 (47.27%) and 1592 (66.44%) of the different expression genes between hybrids and either parental line display parental dominance up or higher levels in Zhengdan958 and Zhengdan958 reciprocal-cross, respectively. Notably, these genes were mainly enriched in metabolic pathways, including carbon metabolism, glycolysis/gluconeogenesis, protein processing in endoplasmic reticulum, etc.ConclusionOur results provide evidence for the higher expression level genes in hybrid involved in metabolic pathways acting as main contributors to maize seed germinating heterosis. These findings provide new insights into the gene expression variation of maize embryo and improve the understanding of maize seed germination heterosis.

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