Figure 1.

Expression of Zeins and Other Storage Proteins in Aleurone and Starchy Endosperm Cells.

(A) RT-PCR analysis of expression of genes encoding zeins, α-globulin, and legumin-1 in aleurone peels (A) and starchy endosperm samples (S) from 18- and 22-DAP kernels. Ubc9 (Ubiquitin-conjugating enzyme 9; Chung et al. 2009), Bt1 (starchy endosperm-preferred expression), and Vp1 (aleurone-preferred expression) were used as controls. PCR products were visualized by staining with ethidium bromide.

(B) Expression profile of Bt1 and Vp1 in aleurone and starchy endosperm samples from 18-DAP kernels determined by real-time quantitative RT-PCR. The expression of both genes in the two cell types was first normalized to Ubc9 and then normalized to the transcript levels of that particular gene in the starchy endosperm (Vp1) or in the aleurone cells (Bt1). The results represent the average and the standard error of two biological samples analyzed by triplicate.

(C) Immunoblot analysis of storage proteins in aleurone (A) and starchy endosperm (S) protein extracts. Bip was used as loading control.