| Abstract | 第1-6页 |
| 摘要 | 第6-13页 |
| ChapterⅠ | 第13-21页 |
| ·General introduction | 第13页 |
| ·Aluminium toxicity, Maize heterosis and Epigenetic mechanisms | 第13-14页 |
| ·The scope and aims of this work | 第14-16页 |
| ·The epigenetic mechanisms | 第16页 |
| ·Research Questions | 第16-17页 |
| ·Hypotheses | 第17-18页 |
| References | 第18-21页 |
| Chapter Ⅱ | 第21-52页 |
| ·General Literature Review | 第21页 |
| ·The genetic analysis of maize inbred lines for heterotic studies | 第21-22页 |
| ·Development of maize reciprocal hybrids from the inbred lines | 第22页 |
| ·Historical background of plant and maize heterosis | 第22页 |
| ·The effects of maize heterosis at embryonic stages and yield | 第22-23页 |
| ·The Global distribution and origin of poor fertility in acidic soils | 第23-24页 |
| ·Growing crops in acid soils: Proton (low pH) tolerant plants | 第24-25页 |
| ·Aluminium toxicity in maize | 第25-27页 |
| ·The option of Al tolerance breeding | 第25-26页 |
| ·The potential for breeding maize for Aluminium stress tolerance | 第26-27页 |
| ·The symptoms of Aluminium toxicity in plants | 第27-28页 |
| ·Methods of directly estimating the Al toxicity in plants: Hematoxylin Staining | 第28-29页 |
| ·The the basis of the mechanisms which releases Al | 第29-31页 |
| ·Mechanisms in the soil | 第29页 |
| ·The Al binding mechanisms in the plants | 第29-30页 |
| ·Physiological mechanisms of aluminium stress tolerance | 第30-31页 |
| ·The search for the molecular basis of Aluminium Toxicity | 第31-32页 |
| ·The rapidity of Al response | 第32页 |
| ·The advent of Molecular markers in Al genotype selection | 第32-33页 |
| ·Epigenetic mechanisms | 第33-36页 |
| ·A general overview of cytosine DNA Methylation in Plants | 第33-34页 |
| ·The effects of ~mCG loss and its maintainace in plants | 第34-35页 |
| ·Possible link between Aluminium Toxicity and epigenetic mechanisms | 第35-36页 |
| ·Isolated Al resistance genes in crop plants | 第36-37页 |
| ·Genetic models and hybrid vigor in plants | 第37-38页 |
| References | 第38-52页 |
| Chapter Ⅲ Preliminary Al~(3+) screening and AFLP analysis of different maize inbred lines to determine their correlations, specific combining ability (SCA) and genetic distances (GD) | 第52-71页 |
| ·Abstract | 第52页 |
| ·Introduction | 第52-55页 |
| ·Aluminium Toxicity | 第53-55页 |
| ·Signs of Aluminium toxicity in plants | 第55页 |
| ·Materials and Methods | 第55-58页 |
| ·Plant material preparation for inbred analysis | 第55页 |
| ·Field testing | 第55页 |
| ·DNA Isolation, AFLP and MSAP analyses | 第55-56页 |
| ·Statistical analysis | 第56页 |
| ·Plant material preparation for Al screening | 第56-57页 |
| ·Preliminary Aluminium screening and Morphology examination | 第57页 |
| ·Hematoxylin Staining | 第57-58页 |
| ·Results | 第58-64页 |
| ·Selection of the Screening Al~(3+) concentration and pH | 第58页 |
| ·Hematoxylin staining and Identification of inbred lines genotypes | 第58-59页 |
| ·AFLP Analysis of inbred lines | 第59-63页 |
| ·The Combining Ability without Al treatment | 第59-61页 |
| ·Performance of Heterosis | 第61页 |
| ·Genetic diversity | 第61-62页 |
| ·Correlation analysis | 第62-63页 |
| ·MSAP analysis of Al selected lines | 第63-64页 |
| ·Discussion and Conclusions | 第64-66页 |
| ·Predicting hybrid performance in maize | 第64-65页 |
| ·Aluminium Tolerance | 第65页 |
| ·The Potential for Aluminium stress tolerance breeding in maize | 第65-66页 |
| References | 第66-71页 |
| Chapter Ⅳ Alteration in cytosine DNA methylation induced by Aluminium toxicity in a Kenya tropical maize (KTM) line and the maize Hybrid line 9x6 (CTM), and their physiological and morphological correlations | 第71-89页 |
| ·Abstract | 第71页 |
| ·Introduction | 第71-73页 |
| ·Significance of epigenetic mechanisms in crop improvement | 第72-73页 |
| ·Materials and Methods | 第73-75页 |
| ·Plant Materials | 第73页 |
| ·Preparation of plant material | 第73-74页 |
| ·Morphological analysis | 第74页 |
| ·The Aluminium accumulation in roots | 第74页 |
| ·DNA extraction and DNA methylation analysis | 第74-75页 |
| ·Identifying the variant bands and chromosomal distribution | 第75页 |
| ·Results | 第75-82页 |
| ·Analysis of Morphological markers | 第75-78页 |
| ·Accumulation of Aluminium in the root tissues | 第78页 |
| ·Leaf, Fruiting and Root morphology during development | 第78-79页 |
| ·Analysis of the CCGG sites in CTM and KTM | 第79-81页 |
| ·Variant bands and their chromosomal distribution | 第81-82页 |
| ·Discussion and Conclusions | 第82-85页 |
| ·Molecular genetics and Aluminium screening | 第82-83页 |
| ·Stress imprint and allelic variation | 第83-84页 |
| ·Epigenetic stress regulators | 第84-85页 |
| References | 第85-89页 |
| Chapter Ⅴ Aluminium toxicity and low pH studies in Heterosis and stress imprint in maize inbred lines and reciprocal hybrids which caused cytosine DNA methylation,physiological and morphological alterations | 第89-143页 |
| Abstract | 第89-90页 |
| ·Introduction | 第90-94页 |
| ·Soil acidification | 第90-92页 |
| ·Crop selection and breeding for aluminum tolerance | 第92-94页 |
| ·Materials and methods | 第94-98页 |
| ·Plant material preparation for inbred analysis | 第94页 |
| ·The experimental Design | 第94-95页 |
| ·Preparation of plant material | 第95-96页 |
| ·Morphological analysis | 第96页 |
| ·Histological analysis and Aluminium accumulation in roots | 第96-97页 |
| ·Studies on Al stress imprint on maize hybrids | 第97页 |
| ·DNA extraction and DNA methylation analysis | 第97-98页 |
| ·Identifying the variant bands and chromosomal distribution | 第98页 |
| ·Results | 第98-128页 |
| ·Analysis of Morphological markers | 第98-105页 |
| ·Best Parent Heterosis (BPH) | 第99-100页 |
| ·Hybrids reciprocal mean (%HR) | 第100页 |
| ·High Parent Heterosis (HPH) | 第100-102页 |
| ·Relative elongation rate (RER) | 第102-103页 |
| ·Percentage Response (%) | 第103-104页 |
| ·Percentage Final root length (FRL) | 第104页 |
| ·The net seminal root length (NSRL) | 第104-105页 |
| ·The root Tolerance Index (RTi) | 第105页 |
| ·Comparative studies with standardized genotype | 第105-106页 |
| ·Comparative Aluminium resistance analysis using Hematoxylin stain | 第106-107页 |
| ·Field studies of the inbred lines and reciprocal Hybrids | 第107-109页 |
| ·The Number of suckers | 第107-108页 |
| ·The accumulation of Aluminium in the root tissues | 第108-109页 |
| ·General Al or pH induced changes in maize morphology | 第109-115页 |
| ·Methylation Analysis of the CCGG sites in the inbred lines and reciprocal hybrid | 第115-121页 |
| ·Inbred lines Cytosine DNA Methylation analysis | 第115-116页 |
| ·Reciprocal Hybrid lines Cytosine DNA Methylation analysis | 第116-119页 |
| ·Methylation Patterns in select lines at 200μM Al | 第119-120页 |
| ·Stress imprint due to Al~(3+) in maize lines | 第120-121页 |
| ·Morphological analysis due to stress imprint | 第120-121页 |
| ·The cytosine methylation levels due to stress memory imprint in maize lines | 第121页 |
| ·Analysis of MSAP band Variants | 第121-128页 |
| ·An example of the variant bands | 第121-124页 |
| ·Synteny with rice and sorghum | 第124-125页 |
| ·Gene Tree of the CSLD2 (CELLULOSE-SYNTHASE LIKE D2) | 第125页 |
| ·The Domains of the CSLD2 | 第125-126页 |
| ·Tracing the CSLD2 in other chromosomes of the maize genome | 第126页 |
| ·The alignment of the band variant sequence | 第126-128页 |
| ·General Discussions and Conclusions | 第128-135页 |
| ·Low pH, Al~(3+) toxicity and maize heterosis | 第129-130页 |
| ·The effectiveness of the MSAP protocol | 第130-132页 |
| ·DNA methylation and Parent of origin effects | 第132-134页 |
| ·Moonlighting roles in Al resistance and Mitochondrial Enzymes | 第134页 |
| ·Heterosis: The dynamism in the structure and fluidity of maize genome | 第134-135页 |
| ·Conclusions | 第135-137页 |
| References | 第137-143页 |
| Acknowledgements | 第143-145页 |
| ·Supplementary Information | 第145-159页 |
| ·Appendices | 第159-176页 |
| ·The List of protocols used in this thesis | 第159-162页 |
| ·DNA extraction | 第159-160页 |
| ·High salt DNA extraction Protocol for DNA Methylation analysis | 第160-162页 |
| ·Determination of DNA concentration in agarose gel | 第162-163页 |
| ·The MSAP Protocol for maize samples | 第163-165页 |
| ·AFLP Adapters and primers | 第165-166页 |
| ·The modified protocol for MSAP/AFLP Polyacrylamide Gel electrophoresis sample analysis | 第166-173页 |
| ·The Band recovery and bacterial Insertion and Transformation Protocol | 第173-176页 |
| ·Lists of publications | 第176-179页 |
