General combining abilities (GCAs) are very important in utilization of heterosis in maize breeding.  However, its genetic basis is unclear.  In the present study, a set of 118 doubled haploid (DH) lines were induced from F1 generations produced from the cross between the inbred line Zheng 58 and the inbred line W499 belonging to the Reid subgroup.  Using the MaizeSNP50 BeadChip, a high-density genetic map was constructed based on the DH population which included 1?147 bin markers with an average interval length of 2.00 cM.  Meanwhile, the DH population was crossed with three testers including W16-5, HD568, and W556, which belong to the Sipingtou subgroup.  The GCAs of the ear height (EH), the kernel moisture content (KMC), the kernel ratio (KR), and the yield per plant (YPP) were estimated using these hybrids in three environments.  Combining the high-density genetic map and the GCAs, a total of 14 QTLs were detected for the GCAs of the four traits.  Especially, one pleiotropic QTL was identified on chromosome 1 between the SNP SYN16067 and the SNP PZE-101169244 which was simultaneously associated with the GCAs of the EH, the KR, and the YPP.  These QTLs pave the way for further dissecting the genetic architecture underlying GCAs of the traits, and they may be used to enhance GCAs of inbred lines under the fixed heterotic pattern Reid×Sipingtou in China through a marker-assisted selection approach.  

The bacterial brown spot disease (BBS), caused primarily by Pseudomonas syringae pv. syringae van Hall (Pss), reduces plant vigor, yield and quality in maize. To reveal the nature of the defense mechanisms and identify genes involved in the effective host resistance, the dynamic changes of defense transcriptome triggered by the infection of Pss were investigated and compared between two maize near-isogenic lines (NILs). We found that Pss infection resulted in a sophisticated transcriptional reprogramming of several biological processes and the resistant NIL employed much faster defense responses than the susceptible NIL. Numerous genes encoding essential components of plant basal resistance would be able to be activated in the susceptible NIL, such as PEN1, PEN2, PEN3, and EDR1, however, in a basic manner, such resistance might not be sufficient for suppressing Pss pathogenesis. In addition, the expressions of a large number of PTI-, ETI-, PR-, and WRKY-related genes were pronouncedly activated in the resistant NIL, suggesting that maize employ a multitude of defense pathways to defend Pss infection. Six R-gene homologs were identified to have significantly higher expression levels in the resistant NIL at early time point, indicating that a robust surveillance system (gene-to-gene model) might operate in maize during Pss attacks, and these homolog genes are likely to be potential candidate resistance genes involved in BBS disease resistance. Furthermore, a holistic group of novel pathogen-responsive genes were defined, providing the repertoire of candidate genes for further functional characterization and identification of their regulation patterns during pathogen infection.

Heterosis has contributed greatly to yield in maize, but the nature of its contribution is not completely clear. In this study, two strategies using whole-genome oligonucleotide microarrays were employed to identify differentially expressed genes (DEGs) associated with heterosis and yield. The analysis revealed 1 838 heterosis-associated genes (HAGs), 265 yieldassociated genes (YAGs), and 85 yield heterosis-associated genes (YHAGs). 37.1% of HAGs and 22.4% of YHAGs expressed additively. The remaining genes expressed non-additively, including those with high/low-parent dominance and over/under dominance, which were prevalent in this research. Pathway enrichment analysis and quantitative trait locus (QTL) co-mapping demonstrated that the metabolic pathways for energy and carbohydrates were the two main enriched pathways influencing heterosis and yield. Therefore, the DEGs participating in energy and carbohydrate metabolism were considered to contribute to heterosis and yield significantly. The investigation of potential groups of HAGs, YAGs, and YHAGs might provide valuable information for exploiting heterosis to improve yield in maize breeding. In addition, our results support the view that heterosis is contributed by multiple, complex molecular mechanisms.

Heterosis plays an important role in crop production and plant evolution. Although heterosis has been widely exploited by plant breeders, the underlying molecular mechanisms are not well understood. We analyzed gene expression of the highly heterotic maize hybrid Zhengdan 958 and its parents, Zheng 58 and Chang 7-2 during spikelet and floscule differentiation using the GeneChip® Maize Genome Array. Pairwise comparison among Zhengdan 958 and its parents at the two stages of immature ear development identfied 1 089 and 1 352 differentially expressed genes. Gene ontology (GO) functional analysis showed that these genes participate in many functional categories, and those encoding response to stress and transcription factor may play important roles in heterosis. Pathway analysis showed that the differentially expressed genes are involved in various metabolic processes, and those participating in lipid metabolism, signal transduction, transport, and catabolism may contribute to heterosis. A non-additive expression pattern was prevalent in genes that were differentially expressed between the hybrid and its parents during both spikelet and floscule differentiation. Because genes that are differentially expressed in a hybrid and its parents could underlie heterosis, nonadditive expression patterns might contribute to the manifestation of heterosis.