Home
Resource
Regulation of gene expression during maize endosperm development
PDF
PDF format is widely accepted and good for printing.
Plug-in required
PDF-1(7.11 MB)
Citation & Export
View Usage Statistics
Staff View

Citation & Export
Hide

Simple citation

Miclaus, Mihai. Regulation of gene expression during maize endosperm development. Retrieved from https://doi.org/doi:10.7282/T3542MP6

Export

Click here for information about Citation Management Tools at Rutgers.

Statistics
Hide

Description

TitleRegulation of gene expression during maize endosperm development
NameMiclaus, Mihai (author); Messing, Joachim (chair); Dooner, Hugo K (internal member); Mckim, Kim (internal member); Leustek, Thomas (internal member); Larkins, Brian A (outside member); Rutgers University; Graduate School - New Brunswick
Date Created2011
Other Date2011-10 (degree)
SubjectPlant Biology, Gene expression, Plant genetic regulation, Corn—Genetic engineering
Extentxi, 105 p. : ill.
DescriptionMy dissertation consists of two chapters that have been formatted into two manuscripts. Both of them relate to endosperm-specific gene expression in maize by a multigene family. Multigenic traits are very common in plants and cause diversity. Nutritional quality is such a trait and one of its factors is the composition and relative
expression of storage protein genes, known as zeins in maize. They represent a medium-size gene family distributed over several chromosomes and unlinked
locations. Two inbreds were selected to analyze allelic and non-allelic variability among the α-zeins. Genes were copied to unlinked sites before and after
allotetraploidization of maize, but before transposition enlarged intergenic regions in a haplotype specific manner. Once genes were copied, expression of donor
genes was reduced relative to new copies. Epigenetic regulation appeared to have contributed to silencing older copies because some of them could be
reactivated when endosperm was maintained as cultured cells. Bisulfite sequencing of the promoter region also showed distinct methylation patterns of
separate gene clusters as well as different tissues, possibly reflecting position effects on regulatory mechanisms as a result of inserting copies at unlinked
locations. Seed mutants with non-vitreous endosperm play an important role in the regulation of α-zein gene expression. Although a number of genes affecting
endosperm vitreousness have already been isolated, it has been difficult to clone opaque7 (o7) – the last in the series of three high-lysine corn mutants – mainly
because of its low penetrance in many genetic backgrounds. To overcome these difficulties, a combination of map-based cloning and transposon tagging was undertaken. An o7 candidate gene, based on map position, contained a 12-bp deletion in the second exon of an acyl-CoA synthetate (ACS)-like gene. A second allele was generated by transposon tagging, with a Dissociation (Ds) element inserting ~500 bp downstream of the deletion, in the same exon. Although zein synthesis appeared to be unaltered in o7-ref and protein accumulation changed only slightly, PBs exhibited striking membrane invaginations. A plausible model consistent with these observations is that the ACS enzyme plays a key role in membrane biogenesis and that altered PBs render the seed non-vitreous.
NotePh.D.
NoteIncludes bibliographical references
NoteIncludes vita
Noteby Mihai Miclaus
Genretheses, ETD doctoral
Persistent URLhttps://doi.org/doi:10.7282/T3542MP6
Languageeng
CollectionGraduate School - New Brunswick Electronic Theses and Dissertations
Organization NameRutgers, The State University of New Jersey
RightsThe author owns the copyright to this work.
Version 8.5.5
Rutgers University Libraries - Copyright ©2024