The Differential Transcription Network between Embryo and Endosperm in the Early Developing Maize Seed      

Abstract

Transcriptome analysis of early-developing maize (Zea mays) seed was conducted using Illumina sequencing. We mapped 11,074,508 and 11,495,788 paired-end reads from endosperm and embryo, respectively, at 9 d after pollination to define gene structure and alternative splicing events as well as transcriptional regulators of gene expression to quantify transcript abundance in both embryo and endosperm. We identified a large number of novel transcribed regions that did not fall within maize annotated regions, and many of the novel transcribed regions were tissue-specifically expressed. We found that 50.7% (8,556 of 16,878) of multiexonic genes were alternatively spliced, and some transcript isoforms were specifically expressed either in endosperm or in embryo. In addition, a total of 46 trans-splicing events, with nine intrachromosomal events and 37 interchromosomal events, were found in our data set. Many metabolic activities were specifically assigned to endosperm and embryo, such as starch biosynthesis in endosperm and lipid biosynthesis in embryo. Finally, a number of transcription factors and imprinting genes were found to be specifically expressed in embryo or endosperm. This data set will aid in understanding how embryo/endosperm development in maize is differentially regulated.Maize (Zea mays) seeds are one of the most important crop materials that provide resources for food, feed, biofuel, and raw material for processing. Maize seed development initiates from double fertilization, in which two of the pollen sperms fuse with an egg cell and a central cell to produce embryo and endosperm, respectively (Randolph, 1936;Chaudhury et al., 2001). The main function of endosperm is to provide nutrient for the developing embryo and germinating embryo.After fertilization, the zygote undergoes an asymmetric division into a small apical cell and a large basal cell, giving rise to the embryo proper and the suspensor, respectively. The radial symmetry of the proembryo is shifted to a bilateral symmetry at the transition stage, which is characterized by protoderm formation. The shoot apical meristem and the root apical meristem can be distinguished at the onset of the coleoptile stage, and then the position of the future coleoptile is marked by a small protuberance. The mature embryo is composed of the embryo axis, which is formed by the plumule with five or six short internodes, and leaf primordia and primary root surrounded by the coleoptile and the coleorhiza, respectively, and the scutellum (Randolph, 1936;Abbe and Stein, 1954;Diboll, 1968;Lammeren, 1986;Vernoud et al., 2005).Maize endosperm follows the nucleus-type endosperm development, where the fertilized central cell undergoes several rounds of synchronous division in the absence of cell wall formation and cytokinesis to produce a syncytium (Lopes and Larkins, 1993;Olsen, 2004). Cellularization allows the formation of the internuclear radial microtubule systems and open-ended alveolation from the periphery of the endosperm toward the central vacuole (Olsen et al., ...

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