Maize (Zea mays inbred line B73) kernels were planted ~2 cm deep in plastic pots (8.5 cm x 8.5 cm wide at the top and 7.5 cm deep) filled with SB 300 Universal (Sun Gro Horticulture). Pots were placed in an environmental control room (PGW-40, Percival Scientific). The light intensity at the growth medium surface was kept between 830 to 860 mol/m2s as measured with a quantum meter (Model QMSW, Apogee Instruments). Temperature and light cycles were set at 25C with 15-hour light conditions and at 20C with 9-hour dark conditions. Pots were watered with a solution containing 0.7 mM calcium nitrate. After 14 days SAMs and seedlings were collected from the same batch of plants.
Extracted molecule
total RNA
Extraction protocol
Six whole seedlings without roots (14-day old, 30 to 40 g) were ground in liquid nitrogen and mixed thoroughly with 360 mL of a solution consisting of 38% [v/v] phenol in saturated buffer (pH 4.3 + 0.2, Fisher Scientific), 0.8 M guanidine thiocyanate, 0.4 M ammonium thiocyanate, 0.1 M sodium acetate [pH 5], 5% [v/v] glycerol. Half of the mixture (about 200 mL) was transferred to a 250 mL centrifuging tube and centrifuged at 12,000g at 4oC for 20 min. The cleared homogenate solution was transferred to a new tube and incubated at room temperature for 25 min. Then, 36 mL of chloroform was added and shaken vigorously for 15 sec followed by 10 min incubation at room temperature. The mixture was centrifuged at 12,000g at 4oC for 30 min and the aqueous phase (about 110 mL) was transferred to a new tube. Then, 36 ml of isopropanol and 36 mL of 0.8 M sodium citrate/1.2 M sodium chloride were added, mixed well and incubated at room temperature for 15 min followed by a centrifugation at 12,000g at 4oC for 20 min to have RNA pellet at the bottom of the tube. The RNA pellet was washed with 75% ethanol and the tube was centrifuged again at 7,500g at 4oC for 8 min. After removing the ethanol, the pellet was air-dried for 30 min at room temperature. The RNA was resuspended with 1.8 mL of diethyl pyrocarbonate (DEPC) treated water at 60oC for 15 min. The RNA solution was transferred into two 1.7-mL Eppendorf tubes and centrifuged at 12,000g at 4oC for 5 min. The supernatant was transferred to new tubes. Five to 30 g of the RNA samples were taken and cleaned up according to the RNA purification step in the RNA amplification procedure (see below). Ten nano-gram of the cleaned up RNA samples were then amplified with T7 RNA polymerase-based (T7-based) RNA amplification according to the method of Nakazono et al. (2003, Plant Cell 15: 583-596) except that amplified RNA was purified with the RNeasy Mini Kit and that after the second strand synthesis cDNA was purified with the QIAquick PCR Purification Kit (Qiagen). The procedure is also available at our project website (http://maize-meristems.plantgenomics.iastate.edu/index.html). Seeding1.1 and Seedling1.2, and Seedling4.1 and Seedling4.2, and Seedling6.1 and Seedling6.2 were amplified from the same RNA pools, respectively.
Label
Cy3
Label protocol
Two micrograms of amplified RNA was labeled with Cy3 or Cy5 according to Nakazono et al. (2003, Plant Cell 15: 583-596) with slight modifications. Details of fluorescent target synthesis are available at our project website (http://maize-meristems.plantgenomics.iastate.edu/index.html). To remove dye-specific effects in the statistical analyses, Cy dyes were swapped between the RNA samples with odd and even numbers.
Channel 2
Source name
Shoot apical meristem (SAM) and very young leaf primordia (P0 and P1). A SAM is comprised of pluripotent stem cells, which divide to regenerate themselves as well as to provide cells to form other organs such as leaves and stems.
Inbred line: B73 Developmental stage: Vegetative SAMs from 14-day old seedlings Sample name: SAM2
Growth protocol
the same as ch1
Extracted molecule
total RNA
Extraction protocol
The PicoPure RNA Isolation Kit (Arcturus) was used to extract total RNA from the maize SAMs collected with LCM according to the manual. The RNA samples were treated with RNase-free DNase I (Stratagene) on column using the DNase Incubation Buffer provided with PALM RNA ExtractionKit (P.A.L.M. Microlaser Technologies) according to the manual of PicoPure RNA Isolation Kit. About 10 ng of the Dnase I-treated RNA samples were then amplified with T7 RNA polymerase-based (T7-based) RNA amplification according to the method of Nakazono et al. (2003, Plant Cell 15: 583-596) except that amplified RNA was purified with the RNeasy Mini Kit and that after the second strand synthesis cDNA was purified with the QIAquick PCR Purification Kit (Qiagen). The procedure is also available at our project website (http://maize-meristems.plantgenomics.iastate.edu/index.html).
Label
Cy5
Label protocol
the same as ch1
Hybridization protocol
Microarray slides were prehybridized in 5X SSC (1X SSC is 0.15 M NaCl and 0.015 M sodium citrate), 0.1% SDS, and 0.1 mg/ml bovine serum albumin at 42oC for 45 min, then rinsed with autoclaved, Millipore water, dipped in isopropanol, and dried by centrifugation. Each target was resuspended in 30 l hybridization solution (5X SSC, 0.1% SDS, 0.2 g/l of yeast tRNA, 0.2 g/l of polyadenylic acid, 25% super-pure (99.5%) formamide (Fisher Scientific). Targets hybridized to the same slide were mixed, heated at 95oC for 3 min, collected by centrifugation, applied to a prehybridized microarray slide and covered with a 24 x 60 mm LiferSlip (Erie Scientific Company). Ten microliters of 3X SSC were added to each of the two slots of the hybridization chamber (TeleChem). The array was then sealed, submerged in a 42oC water bath and incubated for 12 to 18 h. Subsequently, each array was washed in 1X SSC and 0.2% SDS for two minutes, 0.1X SSC and 0.2% SDS for two minutes, and 0.1X SSC for two minutes, followed by a quick rinse in autoclaved, Millipore water. Arrays were then dried via centrifugation. This hybridization procedure is also available at our project website (http://maize-meristems.plantgenomics.iastate.edu/index.html).
Scan protocol
Fluorescence of Cy3 and Cy5 on slides was detected at 10-micron resolution with a Pro Scan Array HT (PerkinElmer). Each slide was scanned nine times with increasing laser power (44 to 100 with seven intervals) and fixed PMT gain (~60 for Cy5 and ~70 for Cy3) settings. PMT gain settings were slightly adjusted depending on slides to have approximately the same amounts of signals between the two channels for the majority of the spots. Subsequently, three scans for each slide (“low”, “medium” and “high”) were selected for statistical analyses.
Description
RNA was isolated from six to ten LCM-collected SAMs using PicoPure RNA Isolation Kit (Arcturus) as per manufacturer’s instructions to generate one biological replication. RNA was also isolated from six above-ground portions of seedlings using “home made Trizol” solution (see full protocol description of extract for details) to generate one biological replication. In total, six biological replications were prepared. Approximately 10 ng of total RNA from each biological replication were used as starting material for T7-based linear RNA amplification, performed as described by Nakazono et al. (2003, Plant Cell 15: 583-596). Each biological replication yielded between 10 and 50 g of amplified RNA (aRNA). Two micrograms of aRNA for each sample was indirectly labeled with Cy dye and hybridized to the GPL3538 platforms.
Data processing
Spots were removed for bad PCR and empty on the microarrays. All data were background corrected and then an R implementation of the lowess normalization method (Dudoit and Fridlyand, 2002, Genome Biol: 3 RESEARCH0036) was used to normalize the two channels for each combination of slide and scan intensity. The data were centered around 0 for each slide. Subsequently, the data from each scan was used to conduct a mixed linear model analysis separately for each of 30,382 spots using a strategy similar to that of Wolfinger et al. (2001, J Comput Biol 8: 625-637).
