Yan Du

Yan Du

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Yan Du

National Maize Improvement Center of China, Beijing Key Laboratory of Crop Genetic Improvement, China Agricultural University, Beijing, 100193, China

Research Focus & Metrics

Academic Career Length

11Years (2016-Present)

(Calculated once Scilit publication data is synced: current year − year of first publication + 1)

Representative Publications

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16 April 2016 in BMC Plant Biology
Verified
Journal Article
Open access
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WHWei Huang
Wei Huang
YDYan Du
Yan Du
XZXin Zhao
Xin Zhao
WJWeiwei Jin
Weiwei Jin
The dispensable maize (Zea mays L.) B chromosome is highly heterochromatic and widely believed to be devoid of functional genes. Although low-copy B chromosome causes no obvious phenotype variation, its existence might influence A genome gene expression. Previous studies suggested that B chromosomes are evolved from standard chromosomes; therefore, they might contain genic regions showing homology with A chromosome sequences. Our data suggested that maize B chromosome influences the A-genome transcription with stronger effect associated with an increase in copy number of B chromosome. In total 130 differently expressed genes were detected in comparison between with and without B chromosome lines. These differentially expressed genes are mainly involved in cell metabolism and nucleotide binding. Using Starter + B, we amplified ten B chromosome loci with high sequence similarity to A-genome genes. Fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH) confirmed that at least four ~5 kb-sized genes are located on the B chromosome. In addition, through de novo assembly of the reads not unmapped to maize B73 reference genome together with PCR validation, we found three B-located LTR; in particular, one of them, the 3.2 kb comp75688, is expressed in a B-dosage dependent manner. We found that in the presence of maize B chromosome, the transcription of A genome genes was altered, with more impact by the increase of the B chromosome number. The B-located transcriptionally active genes showed high similarity to their A-genome homologues, and retrotransposons on B chromosome also have partial homologous to A genome sequences. Our data shed more lights on the genome structure and evolution of the maize B chromosome.