Biomedical subjects

J Doebley

Publications and source records attributed to J Doebley.

10 recordsLinked to original sources

PubMed1997

The evolution of apical dominance in maize.

The domestication of crop plants has often involved an increase in apical dominance (the concentration of resources in the main stem of the plant and a corresponding suppression of axillary branches). A striking example of this phenomenon is seen in maize (Zea mays spp. mays), which exhibits a profound increase in apical dominance compared with its probable wild ancestor, teosinte (Zea mays ssp. parviglumis). Previous research has identified the teosinte branched1 (tb1) gene as a major contributor to this evolutionary change in maize. We have cloned tb1 by transposon tagging and show here that it encodes a protein with homology to the cycloidea gene of snapdragon. The pattern of tb1 expression and the morphology of tb1 mutant plants suggest that tb1 acts both to repress the growth of axillary organs and to enable the formation of female inflorescences. The maize allele of tb1 is expressed at twice the level of the teosinte allele, suggesting that gene regulatory changes underlie the evolutionary divergence of maize from teosinte.

Alleles↗

PubMed1995

teosinte branched1 and the origin of maize: evidence for epistasis and the evolution of dominance.

Two quantitative trait loci (QTL) controlling differences in plant and inflorescence architecture between maize and its progenitor (teosinte) were analyzed. Complementation tests indicate that one of these, which is on chromosome arm 1L, is the locus for the maize mutant teosinte branched1 (tb1). This QTL has effects on inflorescence sex and the number and length of internodes in the lateral branches and inflorescences. This QTL has strong phenotypic effects in teosinte background but reduced effects in maize background. The second QTL, which is on chromosome arm 3L, affects the same traits as the QTL on 1L. We identify two candidate loci for this QTL. The effects of this QTL on several traits are reduced in both maize and teosinte background as compared to a maize-teosinte F2 population. Genetic background appears to affect gene action for both QTL. Analysis of a population in which both QTL were segregating revealed that they interact epistatically. Together, these two QTL substantially transform both plant and inflorescence architecture. We propose that tb1 is involved in the plant's response to local environment to produce either long or short branches and that maize evolution involved a change at this locus to produce short branches under all environments.

Biological Evolution↗

PubMed1993

Evolution of a noncoding region of the chloroplast genome.

The relative rate of occurrence of nucleotide substitutions versus indel (insertion/deletion) events is investigated by comparing complete DNA sequence data from the noncoding portion of the chloroplast genome that maps between the genes rbcL and atp beta. The sequence data are obtained from nine species that represent three tribes of the grass family. Indels could be categorized by those that are deletions or duplications of adjacent or proximal sequences and those that do not appear to be permutations of adjacent sequences. The first category represents 82% of the recorded indels. These indels may also be characterized by being direct duplications of one to several bases usually within runs of As or Ts or by being duplications or deletions of more complex sequences. When viewed from within groups of closely related taxa, indel events appear to occur at an equal or slightly faster rate than do nucleotide substitution events. However, the apparent rate of accumulation of indels in more distantly related species is significantly slower than that of nucleotide substitutions. This difference in apparent accumulation rates between indel events and nucleotide substitutions suggests that the proportion of superimposed changes has been higher among all indel events than among all nucleotide substitution events. Indeed the indels involving more complex sequences were found to be confined across taxa to a number of highly labile sites. Independent, though similar, indel events occur at identical sites in unrelated taxa, yet may not be shared among related taxa, resulting in a type of molecular parallelism. As a result, the phylogenetic tree based on indel events represents an evolutionary hypothesis which is inconsistent with the accepted phylogeny of these grasses. The phylogenetic tree based on nucleotide substitutions is consistent with accepted phylogeny.

Base Sequence↗

PubMed1993

Genetics, development and plant evolution.

The recent mapping of quantitative trait loci in plants indicates that traits are often controlled by relatively few genes, some of which have large effects. Developmental genetics has shown that plant development is often regulated by transcription factors that activate developmental programs in response to internal or environmental signals. These transcription factors are good candidates for the major genes that govern morphological evolution in plants.

Anthocyanins↗

PubMed1993

Inheritance of the morphological differences between maize and teosinte: comparison of results for two F2 populations.

Molecular marker loci (MMLs) were employed to map quantitative trait loci (QTLs) in an F2 population derived from a cross of maize (Zea mays ssp. mays) and its probable progenitor, teosinte (Z. mays ssp. parviglumis). A total of 50 significant associations (putative QTLs) between the MMLs and nine key traits that distinguish maize and teosinte were identified. Results from this analysis are compared with our previous analysis of an F2 population derived from a cross of a different variety of maize and another subspecies of teosinte (Z. mays ssp. mexicana). For traits that measure the architectural differences between maize and teosinte, the two F2 populations possessed similar suites of QTLs. For traits that measure components of yield, substantially different suites of QTLs were identified in the two populations. QTLs that control about 20% or more of the phenotypic variance for a trait in one population were detected in the other population 81% of the time, while QTLs that control less than 10% of the variance in one population were detected in the other population only 28% of the time. In our previously published analysis of the maize x ssp. mexicana population, we identified five regions of the genome that control most of the key morphological differences between maize and teosinte. These same five regions also control most of the differences in the maize x ssp. parviglumis population. Results from both populations support the hypothesis that a relatively small number of loci with large effects were involved in the early evolution of the key traits that distinguish maize and teosinte. It is suggested that loci with large effects on morphology may not be a specific feature of crop evolution, but rather a common phenomenon in plant evolution whenever a species invades a new niche with reduced competition.

Chromosome Mapping↗

PubMed1992

Mapping the genes that made maize.

George Beadle proposed that the striking morphological differences between cultivated maize and its probable wild progenitor (teosinte) were initiated by a small number of mutations with large effects on adult morphology. Recent genetic analyses using molecular markers provide some support for this view and show where in the maize genome the putative loci are likely to be located. This work sets the stage for fine-scale linkage mapping of these genomic regions and the eventual cloning of the genes involved in this remarkable evolutionary transformation.

Chromosome Mapping↗

PubMed1992

Comparative genome mapping of Sorghum and maize.

Linkage relationships were determined among 85 maize low copy number nuclear DNA probes and seven isozyme loci in an F2 population derived from a cross of Sorghum bicolor ssp. bicolor x S. bicolor ssp. arundinaceum. Thirteen linkage groups were defined, three more than the 10 chromosomes of sorghum. Use of maize DNA probes to produce the sorghum linkage map allowed us to make several inferences concerning processes involved in the evolutionary divergence of the maize and sorghum genomes. The results show that many linkage groups are conserved between these two genomes and that the amount of recombination in these conserved linkage groups is roughly equivalent in maize and sorghum. Estimates of the proportions of duplicated loci suggest that a larger proportion of the loci are duplicated in the maize genome than in the sorghum genome. This result concurs with a prior estimate that the nuclear DNA content of maize is three to four times greater than that of sorghum. The pattern of conserved linkages between maize and sorghum is such that most sorghum linkage groups are composed of loci that map to two maize chromosomes. This pattern is consistent with the hypothesized ancient polyploid origin of maize and sorghum. There are nine cases in which locus order within shared linkage groups is inverted in sorghum relative to maize. These may have arisen from either inversions or intrachromosomal translocations. We found no evidence for large interchromosomal translocations. Overall, the data suggest that the primary processes involved in divergence of the maize and sorghum genomes were duplications (either by polyploidy or segmental duplication) and inversions or intrachromosomal translocations.

Chromosome Mapping↗

PubMed1991

Genetic analysis of the morphological differences between maize and teosinte.

Molecular marker loci were used to investigate the inheritance of morphological traits that distinguish maize (Zea mays ssp. mays) from a closely related wild relative, teosinte (Z. mays ssp. mexicana). Regression and interval mapping analyses gave largely congruent results concerning the numbers of loci controlling the morphological traits and the magnitudes of their effects; however, interval mapping tended to give larger estimates for the magnitudes of the effects of the morphological trait loci. This tendency was exaggerated for traits that were non-normally distributed. Variation for most inflorescence traits is controlled by one or two regions of the genome with large effects plus several other regions with relatively small effects. As such, the data are congruent with a mode of inheritance for most traits involving one or two major loci plus several minor loci. Regions of the genome with large effects on one trait consistently had smaller effects on several other traits, possibly as a result of pleiotropy. Most of the variation for the dramatic differences in inflorescence morphology between maize and teosinte is explained by five restricted regions of the genome. One of these regions encompasses a previously described gene, tb1 (teosinte branched), and the effects of this region on inflorescence architecture are similar to the known effects of tb1. Implications of this work for the genetic basis of morphological evolution in plants are discussed.

Biological Evolution↗

PubMed1986

A gene modifying mitochondrial malate dehydrogenase isozymes in Sorghum (Gramineae).

Malate dehydrogenase (MDH) isozymes extracted from dark-grown seedlings of Sorghum species are encoded by at least two genes with their products localized in the mitochondria (mt) and one gene with its products localized in the cytosol. In homozygous genotypes, the three mt-MDH isozymes represent two homodimers and an intergenic heterodimer. For some plants of S. virgatum and S. aethiopicum, the three mt-MDH isozymes migrate about 3 mm faster (more anodally) when electrophoresed on starch gels. The F1's of plants with normal and fast mt-MDHs had normal migration; the F2's segregate 3:1 for normal to fast migration. It is suggested that a single gene, Mmm (mt-MDH modifier), controls this modification of normal migration and that fast migration occurs when the recessive allele (mmm-m) is homozygous. The designation, Mmm, is borrowed from Zea mays, in which a similar gene has been described.

Electrophoresis, Starch Gel↗

PubMed1986

Nucleotide sequence of the split tRNAleu(UAA) gene from Sorghum bicolor chloroplasts.

The nucleotide (nt) sequence of the split tRNAleu(UAA) gene and 328 nt of its flanking regions from sorghum chloroplasts (cp) has been determined. This gene is located in the BamHI-6 fragment in a map position very similar to that of maize. The exon of sorghum tRNAleu gene has an identical nt sequence to its counterpart in maize. Although the 450 nt of intron in sorghum is 8 nt shorter than that of maize, the nt sequence between them shows 97% homology. Like maize and broad bean, the intron from sorghum cp tRNAleu gene could be folded into a secondary structure which is similar to the postulated structure of the intron from the auto-spliceable rRNA precursor of Tetrahymena. Both introns from sorghum and maize contain open reading frames (ORFs) which are conserved at the N terminus. The putative AUG initiation codon for both ORFs is located in the stem region of a 12-bp secondary structure of highly A + T-rich sequences.

Base Sequence↗