Organ-specific variability and inheritance of maize proteins revealed by two-dimensional electrophoresis

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Abstract
Summary: Using two-dimensional polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (2-D PAGE), the genetic variation of proteins was investigated in three organs (mesocotyl, sheath and blade of second leaf) from two maize lines and their hybrids. Nine hundred and eighty-six spots were numbered over the three organs. One hundred and fifty-five polypeptides were found to be genetically variable, due to allelic polymorphism of structural genes and/or to polymorphism of any genetic elements controlling protein amounts. Of these 155 variants 12% clearly showed complete dominance effects in the hybrid patterns, which could reveal dominance effects in the regulation of the protein biosynthesis. Comparison of the three organs showed that (i) the level of variability between lines depended upon the organ, since it varied from 7·5% for the blade to 12·6% for the mesocotyl and 13·2% for the sheath; (ii) 68 polypeptides displayed different kinds of variation in different organs and (iii) in all cases but one the dominant inheritance was organ-specific.

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