Comprehensive analysis of 1,771 transcriptomes from 7 tissues enhance genetic and biological interpretations of maize complex traits.

By reanalyzing 1,771 RNA-seq datasets from 7 tissues in a maize diversity panel, we explored the landscape of multi-tissue transcriptome variation, evolution patterns of tissue-specific genes, and built a comprehensive multi-tissue gene regulation atlas to understand the genetic regulation of maize complex traits. Through an integrative analysis of tissue-specific gene regulatory variation with genome-wide association studies, we detected relevant tissue types and several candidate genes for a number of agronomic traits, including leaf during the day for the anthesis-silking interval, leaf during the day for kernel Zeinoxanthin level, and root for ear height, highlighting the potential contribution of tissue-specific gene expression to variation in agronomic traits. Using transcriptome-wide association and colocalization analysis, we associated tissue-specific expression variation of 74 genes to agronomic traits variation. Our findings provide novel insights into the genetic and biological mechanisms underlying maize complex traits, and the multi-tissue regulatory atlas serves as a primary source for biological interpretation, functional validation, and genomic improvement of maize.