Endosperm-preferred expression of maize genes as revealed by transcriptome-wide analysis of expressed sequence tags

• Published in: Plant molecular biology Vol. 59; no. 2; pp. 363 - 374
• Main Authors: Verza, Natalia C, E Silva, Thaís Rezende, Neto, Germano Cord, Nogueira, Fábio T S, Fisch, Paulo H, de Rosa, Jr, Vincente E, Rebello, Marcelo M, Vettore, André L, da Silva, Felipe Rodrigues, Arruda, Paulo
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Netherlands Springer Nature B.V 01.09.2005
• Subjects: Corn; Data storage; Expressed Sequence Tags; Gene Expression Profiling; Gene Expression Regulation, Developmental; Gene Expression Regulation, Plant - genetics; Genomics; Libraries; Plant Proteins - genetics; Plant Proteins - metabolism; Plant Roots - genetics; Plant Roots - metabolism; Seedlings - genetics; Seedlings - metabolism; Seeds - genetics; Transcription, Genetic - genetics; Zea mays; Zea mays - genetics; Zea mays - growth & development
• ISSN: 0167-4412; 1573-5028
• DOI: 10.1007/s11103-005-8924-7

The transcriptome-wide endosperm-preferred expression of maize genes was addressed by analyzing a large database of expressed sequence tags (ESTs). We generated 30,531 high quality sequence-reads from the 5'-ends of cDNA libraries from maize endosperm harvested at 10, 15, and 20 days after pollination. A further 196,900 maize sequence-reads retrieved from public databases were added to this endosperm collection to generate MAIZEST, a database with tools for data storage and analysis. MAIZEST contains 227,431 ESTs, one third of which represents developing endosperm and the remaining two-thirds represent transcripts from 49 cDNA libraries constructed from different organs and tissues. Assembling the MAIZEST ESTs generated 29,206 putative transcripts, of which a set of 4032 assembled sequences was composed exclusively of sequences derived from endosperm cDNA libraries. After sequence analysis using overlapping parameters, a sub-set of 2403 assembled sequences was functionally annotated and revealed a wide variety of putative new genes involved in endosperm development and metabolism.