Identification, association, and expression analysis of ZmNAC134 gene response to phosphorus deficiency tolerance traits in maize at seedling stage

Abstract

Phosphorus deficiency is one of the major factors limiting plant growth and grain yield. Improving plant tolerance to Pi deficiency through genetic mechanism is an important source to increase grain yield. In this study, bioinformatics analysis, expression, and natural variation in ZmNAC134 gene with low Pi tolerant traits were analyzed under low Pi conditions. A total of 177 diverse heterotic groups of maize inbreds were used to identify the nucleotide diversity and alleles of ZmNAC134, which plays a vital role in the regulation of root architecture in response to Pi deficiency evolutionary results showed that ZmNAC134 has 3 homologous genes and these genes have one exon and conserved domain. The phenotypic traits showed significant difference for each of the 22 traits under deficient and sufficient Pi conditions. A total of 27 SNPs were identified in the coding region of ZmNAC134 and no InDels among 177 inbred lines. Among 27 SNPs, a total of 8 sites were highly significantly associated with multiple traits of low Pi tolerant trait index at − log10 P = 3.43. Although, 7 sites under Pi normal and 9 sites under Pi deficient conditions, of which four synonymous sites (position S24, S82, S164, and S1037) were associated with diverse number of traits in low Pi and normal Pi conditions and LD was not tight among these sites. Furthermore, the expression pattern was compared between Pi tolerant 178 and Pi sensitive 9782 inbred lines. ZmNAC134 was highly up-regulated in the roots and leaves of Pi tolerant 178 inbred line at 3 days, 7 days, and 9 days in roots and 7 days and 12 days in leaves while down-regulated in roots and leaves of Pi sensitive 9782 inbred line. In addition, protein encoded by ZmNAC134 was located in both nucleus and cytoplasm. Our findings provide the new insight of ZmNAC134 gene involved in low Pi stress and responsible against low Pi condition and the significant association of polymorphic loci with traits could be helpful to find out the molecular marker for genetic resources for further molecular maize breeding program.