Molecular characterization of gene governing branching architecture in cultivated maize and wild relatives.

We sequenced the entire gene in six maize inbreds and its wild relatives (, , and ) to characterize it at molecular level. and transposable elements were observed in the upstream of in all maize inbreds, while they were absent in wild relatives. In maize, consisted of 431-443 bp 5'UTR, 1101 bp coding sequence and 211-219 bp 3'UTR. In promoter region, mutations in the light response element in (~ 35 bp and ~ 55 bp upstream of TSS) and (at ~ 35 bp upstream of TSS) were found. A 6 bp insertion at 420 bp downstream of the polyA signal site was present among teosinte accessions, while it was not observed in maize. A codominant marker flanking the 6 bp was developed, and it differentiated the teosintes from maize. In protein, alanine (12.7-14.6%) was the most abundant amino acid with tryptophan as the rarest (0.5-0.9%). The molecular weight of protein was 38757.15 g/mol except 'Palomero Toluqueno' and HKI1128. R and TCP motifs in protein were highly conserved across maize, teosinte and orthologues, while TCP domain differed for paralogue. possessed important role in light-, auxin-, stress-response and meristem identity maintenance. Presence of molecular signal suggested its localization in mitochondria, nucleus and nucleolus. and shared closer relationship with maize than and . A highly conserved 59-60 amino acids long bHLH region was observed across genotypes. Information generated here assumes significance in evolution of gene and breeding for enhancement of prolificacy in maize.