USE OF SILK NUMBER ASSAY TO SCREEN FOR GENES ENHANCING CORN YIELD

摘要

The invention provides a rapid and efficient method and assay for monitoring yield enhancement in a plant using a measure of silk number. The plant is transformed with a prospective gene associated with yield enhancement. The transformed plant is grown along with non-transformed control plants until silk growth is apparent. The change in the number of silks in the transformed plant correlated to the change in yield for the plant. Therefore, changes in yield enhancement can be estimated in the transformed plant prior to harvest of mature plant tissues.

主权项

1. A high throughput method for screening for enhanced yield potential in maize, comprising:
a. obtaining a transformed maize plant with an expression construct comprising a polynucleotide, operably linked to a heterologous promoter; b. growing the transformed plant under plant growing conditions until silks develop, c. counting the number of silks present in the ear; d. comparing the number of transformed maize plant silks with a control plant silks; e. identifying the transformed maize plant with increased silk number as compared to the control plant, and f. generating seeds from the identified maize plant that has enhanced yield potential.