Role of the Snf2-Related Protein required to maintain repression1 (RMR1) in Heterosis

ABSTRACT: Combining dissimilar parents often leads to increased vigor in the hybrid offspring. “Heterosis” describes both this behavior and its underlying Mendelian and non-Mendelian interactions [1], although its molecular basis remains largely unknown. Recent comparisons of small RNA (sRNA) profiles from parents and their heterotic progeny identified correlations between interparental 24-nucleotide (24-nt) RNA variation and non-additive 24-nt RNA changes in the resulting hybrid [2,3]. 24-nt RNAs guide de novo cytosine methylation, and several proteins are required for their biogenesis, including a Snf2-like ATPase: required to maintain repression1 (RMR1) [4]. We found height variation between heterotic hybrids +/- RMR1 activity, implicating a role for RMR1 in heterosis. Based on the published correlations mentioned above [2,3], we hypothesized that RMR1-loss reduces parental sRNAs, altering their relative ratios and changing the sRNA profiles in the resulting hybrid from those of a standard hybrid (from +RMR1 parents). To probe this hypothesis, we profiled sRNAs from parents and hybrids +/- RMR1 function, limiting the parental diversity to only portions of chromosomes 6 and 9. Our analysis will address how RMR1 loss changes hybrid sRNAs in the presence and absence of underlying genetic variation and help to determine how this loss results in different phenotypic outcomes from heterotic crosses. 1. Shull (1948) Genetics 2. Groszmann et al (2011) PNAS 3. Barber et al (2012) PNAS 4. Hale et al (2007) PLoS Biology

ORGANISM(S): Zea mays

PROVIDER: GSE52103 | GEO | 2014/06/04

SECONDARY ACCESSION(S): PRJNA226700

REPOSITORIES: GEO