Heterosis-associated gene expression in maize (Zea mays L.) embryo and endosperm 6 days after pollination

We demonstrated the manifestation of heterosis in hybrid maize embryo and endosperm tissue six days after fertilization in crosses of several inbred lines. Here we analyzed heterosis-associated gene expression pattern in these tissues of reciprocal crosses of two european maize inbred line combinations. Differences in gene expression were analyzed with custom microarrays by a combined approach of suppression subtractive hybridization and microarray hybridizations Analysis used isolated embryos and endosperm samples for a total of 48 microarray hybridizations of hybrid genotypes generated by reciprocal crosses of UH301/UH005 and UH250/UH301 and the corresponding inbred lines. The investigations are based on two biological replicates of the UH250/UH301 genotype combination and four biological replicates of the UH301/UH005 genotype combination. The hybridization experiments employed a loop design.