Relationships of differential gene expression in leaves with heterosis and heterozygosity in a rice diallel cross

Abstract

Using differential display analysis, we assessed the patterns of differential gene expression in hybrids relative to their parents in a diallel cross involving 8 elite rice lines. The analysis revealed several patterns of differential expression including: (1) bands present in one parent and F1 but absent in the other parent, (2) bands observed in both parents but not in the F1, (3) bands occurring in only one parent but not in the F1 or the other parent, and, (4) bands detected only in the F1 but in neither of the parents. Relationships between differential gene expression and heterosis and marker heterozygosity were evaluated using data for RFLPs, SSRs and a number of agronomic characters. The analysis showed that there was very little correlation between patterns of differential expression and the F1 means for all six agronomic traits. Differentially expressed fragments that occurred only in one parent but not in the other parent or in F1 in each of the respective crosses were positively correlated with heterosis and heterozygosity. And conversely, fragments that were detected in F1s but in neither of the respective parents were negatively correlated with heterosis and heterozygosity. The remaining patterns of differential expression were not correlated with heterosis or heterozygosity. The relationships between the patterns of differential expression and heterosis observed in this study were not consistent with expectations based on dominance or overdominance hypotheses.