Zea mays Transcriptome or Gene expression

Aflatoxin contamination caused by the opportunistic pathogen A. flavus is a major concern in maize production prior to harvest and during storage. Previous studies indicate that both constitutive and induced resistance are involved in maize kernel defense against A. flavus infection, little is known about molecular mechanisms of mature kernels in response to fungal infection. The purpose of this study is to determine gene expression differences in maize kernels between resistant and susceptible lines in response to A. flavus challenge. To avoid the environmental effects in the field inoculation, a laboratory based inoculation technique Kernel Screening Assay (KSA) was used to challenge kernels with A. flavus. After 72 hours incubation of inoculated and noninculated mature kernels, gene expression profiles of two Near Isogenic Lines (NIL) of Eyl25 (A. flavus resistant) and Eyl31 (A. flavus susceptible) were compared using oligonucleotide array. Overall design: Direct comparisons were designed. The comparisons of NIL Eyl25 and Eyl31 include: Treated/Control, Control/Control and Treated/Treated. After 72 hours incubation under KSA conditions, forty seeds used in each A. flavus inoculated and noninculated group were bulked to extract total RNA. Four technical replications were performed in each comparison including two dye-swaps, total 16 hybridization reactions.