EXPRESSION LEVEL OF Sh2 AND Bt2 GENES IN SOME ADVANCED CORN LINES UNDER TROPICAL ENVIRONMENT.

Keywords: crossbreeding; gene modification; maize yield; ADP-glucose pyrophosphorylase EN crossbreeding gene modification maize yield ADP-glucose pyrophosphorylase INTRODUCTION Maize is among the most important crops as its kernels afford huge amounts of starch content, a carbohydrate derived from variable proportions of amylopectin and amylose polymers. DISCUSSION This study clarifies the expression levels of shrunken-2 (Sh2) and brittle-2 (Bt2) genes that encode the large and small subunits of ADP-glucose pyrophosphorylase in the leaf and endosperm tissue of UM corn advance lines, respectively. The results indicate that these two subunits of ADP-glucose pyrophosphorylase (AGPase) were upregulated in the leaf and endosperm tissue of composite corn lines rather than their parental lines, whereas the gene-specific primer for Bt2a could not amplify the genomic DNA of these corn lines. "Two paralogous genes encoding small subunits of ADP-glucose pyrophosphorylase in maize, Bt2 and L2, replace the single alternatively spliced gene found in other cereal species.". [Extracted from the article]