Functional analysis of genes involved in heterosis for plant height in maize by expressing profiling

杂种优势是指杂交种的上级性状与其（近交系）亲本的平均值相比。尽管杂种优势在植物育种中具有重要意义，但对杂种优势的分子基础却知之甚少。基因组学，特别是表达谱分析，为在分子水平上研究这一现象提供了新的可能性。本研究以玉米株高作为研究杂种优势的模型，因为株高与玉米整株干物质产量的重要农艺性状密切相关。将在形态学和组织学水平以及通过表达谱分析对株高具有显著杂种优势超过50%的七个杂交-近交三联体进行分析。公开可用的“单基因微阵列”将用于芽发育的几个生长阶段的表达谱分析。结果将进行生物信息学分析，以确定差异表达的基因之间的杂交种和它们的亲本自交系，这是参与杂种优势，并可能形成诊断工具的基础上，更有针对性地利用杂种优势在植物育种。

Heterosis is the superior performance of hybrids compared to the mean of their (inbred) parents. Despite of its significance for plant breeding little is known about the molecular basis of heterosis. Genomics, especially expression profiling, offers new possibilities to study this phenomenon at the molecular level. In this study, the plant height of maize will be used as model to study heterosis, since plant height is closely correlated with the agronomically important trait dry matter yield of whole maize plants. Seven hybrid - inbred triplets with significant heterosis for plant height above 50% will be analysed at the morphological and histological level as well as by expression profiling. Publicly available "unigene microarrays" will be used in expression profiling of several growth stages of shoot development. Results will be bioinformatically analyzed in order to identify differentially expressed genes between hybrids and their parental inbreds, which are involved in heterosis and might form the basis of diagnostic tools for a more targeted exploitation of heterosis in plant breeding.