Characterization and expression analysis of the maize RING-H2 finger protein gene ZmXERICO responsive to plant hormones and abiotic stresses

Abstract

Really interesting new gene (RING)-H2 proteins are widely represented in plants and play important roles in the regulation of many developmental processes as well as in plant–environment interactions. In the present report, a full-length cDNA encoding a putative RING-H2 protein with high sequence homology to Arabidopsis thaliana RING-H2 gene XERICO, designated as ZmXERICO, was isolated from maize. The full-length cDNA of ZmXERICO contained a 435 bp open reading frame encoding a precursor protein of 145 amino acid residues. Comparative and bioinformatics analyses revealed that ZmXERICO showed a high degree of homology with RING-H2 proteins and contained the transmembrane domain (TM) and RING-H2 motif. In our study, ZmXERICO was analyzed for expression profiles in various organs (root, stem, leaf, stamen, pistil and seed) and responding to exogenous hormone treatment and abiotic stresses using real-time PCR. The results showed that the expression of ZmXERICO was different regulated after treated by gibberellins acid-3 (GA3) and GA biosynthetic inhibitor paclobutrazol between in light and darkness. Moreover, the expression of ZmXERICO under different abiotic stresses was analyzed at different time points. The ZmXERICO was up-regulated in salt, drought, abscisic acid and cold stress. These expression results suggested that ZmXERICO played an important role in plant hormones signal pathways and light signal pathways, and that ZmXERICO might be involved in plant defense system against environmental stresses in maize.