Investigating Vegetative Phase Change in Maize

Vegetative phase change is a plants change from its juvenile phase to its reproductive adult phase. During this change there are abrupt changes in plant morphology and this can vary widely from plant to plant. Some plants like trees can take decades to transition into the adult phase, while other like maize and Arabidopsis thaliana can take only weeks. Both of these phases are regulated by miR156, which decline at the end of the juvenile phase resulting in the increase of miR172 miR395 experiences a peak in expression in early development of maize in leaves 1 and 2. There is also another peak in expression in the primordia of leaf 5, starting the transition into the adult phase. The regulation of these microRNAs are still in question. Here, we look at how synergistic effects of jasmonic acid and salicylic acid effect the regulation of vegetative phase change. We also applied a slow releasing hydrogen sulfide compound, GYY4137, and quantified photosynthetic pigments as a way to look at the role of miR395 in the juvenile phase.