To better understand the role of auxin in maize root development, we searched for some key factors in the signaling pathways (Additional file 8).
In addition, we searched for putative maize homologs to PSTOL1, a gene responsible to enhance early root growth, P uptake and grain yield in rice and sorghum.
To assess their abundance within the genome we searched the collection of maize GSSs, representing a high proportion of the maize genic regions, and found evidence for additional copies of these genes in other regions of the maize genome.
To further examine expression of Meg genes at the protein level, we searched the Atlas of Maize Proteotypes database (http://maizeproteome.ucsd.edu), where results from proteomic analyses of maize seed tissues are cataloged.
Therefore, in this study we searched for alternatives methods for seed inoculation of maize and wheat, aiming to avoid the direct contact of bacteria with pesticides.
In addition, we searched for conservation of these miRNAs in Arabidopsis, rice and maize.
We searched for additional loci to those described in [ 33] (ZmHK1, 2 and 3, which displays two splicing alternatives) and [ 34] (ZmHK1b1, 1b1 and 1b2) by homology searches against the maize sequence database http://www.maizesequence.org.org
The assemblies from sorghum and maize were searched against the TIGR rice pseudomolecules [Release 3.0, January 2005] using the BLASTZ program [ 51].
