Plant stem cells have the remarkable ability to give rise to distinct tissues and organs throughout development. Two concentric cylinders of active...

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Arabidopsis leaf epidermal cells have a wide range of sizes and ploidies, but the mechanisms patterning their size and spatial distribution remain unclear. This study shows that the pathway controllin...

Affinity purification in Arabidopsis identified all key subunits of the outer kinetochore KMN complex. Functional analyses revealed a striking conservation of its composition and organization across k...

Symbioses have been fundamental to colonization of terrestrial ecosystems by plants and their evolution. Emergence of the ancient arbuscular mycorrhizal symbiosis was followed by the diversification o...

Conference "Molecular Biology of Plants", annual meeting of the Section Plant Physiology and Molecular Biology in the DBG

Background Classical genetic concepts to explain heterosis attribute the superiority of F1-hybrids over their homozygous parents to the complementation of unfavorable by beneficial alleles (dominance) or to heterozygote advantage (overdominance). Here we analyze 112 intermated B73xMo17 recombinant inbred lines of maize and their backcrosses to their original parents B73 and Mo17 to obtain hybrids with an average heterozygosity of ~ 50%. This genetic architecture allows studying the influence of homozygous and heterozygous genomic regions on gene expression in hybrids. Results We demonstrate that single parent expression (SPE) complementation explains between − 8% and 29% of the mid-parent heterotic variance in these hybrids. In this expression pattern, consistent with dominance, genes are active in only one parent and in the hybrid, thus increasing the number of expressed genes in hybrids. Furthermore, we establish that eQTL regulating SPE genes are predominantly located in heterozygous regions of the genome. Finally, we identify an SPE gene that regulates lateral root density in hybrids. Remarkably, the activity of this gene depends on the presence of a Mo17 allele in an eQTL that regulates this gene. Conclusions Here we show that dominance of SPE genes influences the number of active genes in hybrids, while heterozygosity is instrumental for the regulation of these genes. This finding supports the notion that the genetic constitution of distant regulatory elements is instrumental for the activity of heterosis-associated genes. In summary, our results connect genetic variation at regulatory loci and the degree of heterozygosity with phenotypic variation of heterosis via SPE complementation.

Arabidopsis remains one of the best studied models today and has a number of remarkable chemical defense systems which actively engage, interact and preven

Iron acquisition is a critical challenge for plants, especially in iron-deficient soils. Recent research underscores the importance of root-exuded coumarins in modulating the root microbiome communi.....