玉米杂种优势分子基础研究进展

In Search of the Molecular Basis of Heterosis in Maize

当今作物改良中杂种优势的广泛应用得益于杂交玉米的首先培育成功,对其分子基础的探讨已历经近一个世纪却尚未达成共识。关于杂种优势的经典解释曾聚焦于显性和超显性假说,现在看来似乎是借喻遗传学分子概念而无实际分子基础的实用性概念,籍此导致了一些研究结果的不一致是可以理解的。随着基因组时代的到来和相关分子技术的出现,文章回顾了过去的研究结果,分析了杂种优势分子机制研究的现状和问题,针对两亲本及其后代杂交后基因组构架和基因表达变化的研究趋势及方向进行了评价,并提出了由此资讯引发的SNPs单倍型用于玉米杂种优势分子基础研究的新策略。

The widespread use of heterosis in crop improvement today must be credited to the Success of hybrid maize first. The maize molecular basis has been discussed for nearly a century, but little consensus has emerged. The classic quantitative genetic explanation of heterosis center on two main hypotheses, the dominance and overdominance. Although these hypothese were coined before the molecular concepts of genetics were formulated and are not connected with molecular principles. Therefore, they arc of diminished utility for describing the molecular parameters that accompany heterosis, with the advent of the genomic era, the tools to study a molecular basis for heterosis are at hand. Based on the retrospect of the past studies, the paper presented here analyzes some current status and problems of the molecular mechanism for heterosis, reviews the genomic architecture of genes and genes expression within two parents and their reciprocal hybrids. The trends and directions of studies are put forward. The information will help to develop new strategies for haplotype analysis of single nucleotide polymorphisms in maize.