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AOBPreview originally published online on February 14, 2008
Annals of Botany 2008 101(6):833-843; doi:10.1093/aob/mcn017
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© The Author 2008. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Annals of Botany Company. All rights reserved. For Permissions, please email: journals.permissions@oxfordjournals.org

When Genomes Collide: Aberrant Seed Development Following Maize Interploidy Crosses

Paul D. Pennington, Liliana M. Costa, Jose F. Gutierrez-Marcos{dagger}, Andy J. Greenland{ddagger} and Hugh G. Dickinson*

Department of Plant Sciences, South Parks Road, Oxford OX1 3RB, UK

* For correspondence. E-mail hugh.dickinson{at}plants.ox.ac.uk

Received: 27 July 2007    Returned for revision: 14 September 2007    Accepted: 10 December 2007    Published electronically: 14 February 2008

Background and Aims: The results of wide- or interploidy crosses in angiosperms are unpredictable and often lead to seed abortion. The consequences of reciprocal interploidy crosses have been explored in maize in detail, focusing on alterations to tissue domains in the maize endosperm, and changes in endosperm-specific gene expression.

Methods: Following reciprocal interploidy crosses between diploid and tetraploid maize lines, development of endosperm domains was studied using GUS reporter lines, and gene expression in resulting kernels was investigated using semi-quantitative RT-PCR on endosperms isolated at different stages of development.

Key Results: Reciprocal interploidy crosses result in very small, largely infertile seeds with defective endosperms. Seeds with maternal genomic excess are smaller than those with paternal genomic excess, their endosperms cellularize earlier and they accumulate significant quantities of starch. Endosperms from the reciprocal cross undergo an extended period of cell proliferation, and accumulate little starch. Analysis of reporter lines and gene expression studies confirm that functional domains of the endosperm are severely disrupted, and are modified differently according to the direction of the interploidy cross.

Conclusions: Interploidy crosses affect factors which regulate the balance between cell proliferation and cell differentiation within the endosperm. In particular, unbalanced crosses in maize affect transfer cell differentiation, and lead to the temporal deregulation of the ontogenic programme of endosperm development.

Key words: Fertilization, interploidy crosses, endosperm, maize, Zea mays, imprinting, epigenetics, gene dosage, seed development

{dagger} Current address: HRI Warwick, Wellesbourne, Warwickshire CV35 9EF, UK.

{ddagger} Current address: NIAB, Huntingdon Road, Cambridge CB3 0LE, UK.


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