A Novel Heat Shock Transcription Factor (ZmHsf08) Negatively Regulates Salt and Drought Stress Responses in Maize.

Jing Wang,Yun Long,Weina Si,Beijiu Cheng,Li Chen,Haiyang Jiang

doi:10.3390/ijms222111922

Jing Wang, Yun Long + Show 4 more

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https://doi.org/10.3390/ijms222111922

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Abstract

Heat shock transcription factors (HSFs) play important roles in plant growth, development, and stress responses. However, the function of these transcription factors in abiotic stress responses in maize (Zea mays) remains largely unknown. In this study, we characterized a novel HSF transcription factor gene, ZmHsf08, from maize. ZmHsf08 was highly homologous to SbHsfB1, BdHsfB1, and OsHsfB1, and has no transcriptional activation activity. The expression profiles demonstrated that ZmHsf08 was differentially expressed in various organs of maize and was induced by salt, drought, and abscisic acid (ABA) treatment. Moreover, the overexpression of ZmHsf08 in maize resulted in enhanced sensitivity to salt and drought stresses, displaying lower survival rates, higher reactive oxygen species (ROS) levels, and increased malondialdehyde (MDA) contents compared with wild-type (WT) plants. Furthermore, RT-qPCR analyses revealed that ZmHsf08 negatively regulates a number of stress/ABA-responsive genes under salt and drought stress conditions. Collectively, these results indicate that ZmHsf08 plays a negative role in response to salt and drought stresses in maize.

Highlights

Plants are prone to encountering environmental stresses during all aspects of plant growth and development, resulting in devastating damage to the survival and production of the plants
The coding sequence of ZmHsf08 was cloned from seedlings of the maize inbred B73
Sanger sequencing results showed that the coding sequence (CDS) of ZmHsf08 was 897 bp in length (Figure 1A)

Summary

Introduction

Plants are prone to encountering environmental stresses during all aspects of plant growth and development, resulting in devastating damage to the survival and production of the plants. Among these environmental factors, drought and salt stress are the most important challenges limiting crop growth and grain yield [1,2]. TFs activate the transcription of stress-responsive genes by binding to their promoters, resulting in enhanced stress tolerance in plants [19]. HSFs are an important gene family of TFs, which are involved in plant growth, development, and stress response. The maximum number of HSF families in plants was identified in wheat: at least 56 HSFs [25]

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