Plant height heterosis is quantitatively associated with expression levels of plastid ribosomal proteins
Devon Birdseye, Laura A. de Boer, Hua Bai, Peng Zhou, Zhouxin Shen, Eric A. Schmelz, Nathan M. Springer, Steven P. Briggs
Abstract
, largely phenocopied the hybrid proteome, indicating that a reduction in ethylene biosynthesis may mediate the differences between inbreds and their hybrids. To rank the relevance of expression differences to trait heterosis, we compared seedling leaf protein levels to the adult plant height of 15 hybrids. Hybrid/midparent expression ratios were most positively correlated with hybrid/midparent plant height ratios for the chloroplast ribosomal proteins. Our results show that increased expression of chloroplast ribosomal proteins in hybrid seedling leaves is mediated by reduced expression of ethylene biosynthetic enzymes and that the degree of their overexpression in seedlings can quantitatively predict adult trait heterosis.