Microarray analysis of male strobili in fertile and sterile male strobili of Cryptomeria japonica

Investigation of comprehensive gene expression level changes in male strobili of sterile mutant, compared to the fertile plant. We designed a new custum array derived from ESTs of Cryptomeria japonica for this study. Male strobili of C. japonica were collected from Toyama 1 half-sib F2 pedigree. Toyama 1 male-sterile mutant was first reported in Saito, M. , H. Taira, and Y. Furuta (Journal of Forest Research 3(3):167-173). Microarray studies using both individual samples and pooled samples were performed. Total RNA was extracted from male strobili at four developmental stages derived from each seven fertile and male-sterile trees as individual samples. Pooled RNA samples were prepared from four to eight different fertile and sterile plants at three developmental stages.