Inhibition of Germination Gene Expression by Viviparous-1 and ABA during Maize Kernel Development

Nam Chon Paek, Byung Moo Lee, Dong Gyu Bai, James D. Smith

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12 Scopus citations

Abstract

Two maize glyoxysomal genes expressed during germination, malate synthase (MS) and isocitrate lyase (ICL), were used to characterize the regulatory roles of the Viviparous-1 (Vp1) regulatory gene and abscisic aicd (ABA) in the induction of embryo quiescence during kernel development. In wild-type maize embryo, MS and ICL transcripts were first detected at 2 (MS) or 3 (ICL) days after germination (DAG), peaked at 5 DAG, and decreased thereafter. By reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR), the germination-specific genes were amplified in both ABA-insensitive (vp1) and ABA-deficient (vp7 and vp10) mutant embryos at 26 and 33 days after pollination (DAP), but not in wild-type embryos. The repression of these germination-specific genes thus requires the Vp1 gene product and normal levels of ABA to induce embryo quiescence during kernel development. This suggests that a genetic regulatory system exists to prevent vivipary in developing maize embryos. The involvement of the Vp1 gene product and ABA in repressing germination-specific genes complements their previously defined roles in the induction of seed-specific genes such as C1 (Hattori et al., 1992; Paek et al., 1997), Em (McCarty et al., 1991), and Gln1 (Kriz et al., 1990; Rivin and Grudt, 1991).

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)336-342
Number of pages7
JournalMolecules and Cells
Volume8
Issue number3
StatePublished - 30 Jun 1998

Keywords

  • ABA
  • Germination
  • Isocitrate Lyase
  • Maize
  • Malate Synthase
  • Viviparous-1

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