Abstract
In plants, lateral roots play a crucial role in the uptake of water and nutrients. Several genes such as Zea mays Haem Oxygenase-1 (ZmHO-1) and Giberellic Acid-Stimulated Like-1 (ZmGSL-1) have been found to be involved in lateral root development. In the present investigation, we observed that heat treatment might be involved in the inhibition of lateral root primordium (LRP) formation in maize, accompanied by an increase in global acetylation levels of histone 3 lysine residue 9 (H3K9) and histone 4 lysine residue 5 (H4K5), suggesting that histone modification was related to LRP inhibition. However, Trichostatin A (TSA), an inhibitor of histone deacetylases (HDACs), apparently did not inhibit the LRP formation, revealing that global hyperacetylation might not be the determining factor in the LRP inhibition induced by heat stress. Furthermore, expression of genes related to lateral root development in maize, ZmHO-1 and ZmGSL-1, was down-regulated and the acetylation levels in the promoter region of these two genes were decreased under heat stress, suggesting that promoter-associated histone acetylation might be associated with the expression of ZmHO-1 and ZmGSL-1 genes which were found to be involved in the heat-induced LRP inhibition in maize.
Highlights
Plant roots play a crucial role in communication at the root-soil interface, and anchorage (Villordon et al, 2014)
In an attempt to investigate the genetic mechanism of the plant response to heat stress, our results suggested that heat stress led to lateral root primordium (LRP) inhibition in maturation zone of maize seedlings
No LRP initiation was observed at the individual level in the heat-treated seedlings, whereas several lateral roots appeared in maturation zone of the control roots, showing that heat stress inhibits the LRP formation (Figure 1A)
Summary
Plant roots play a crucial role in communication at the root-soil interface (i.e., water and nutrition uptake), and anchorage (Villordon et al, 2014). Maize (Zea mays), an agronomically important cereal crop, plays an important role in food, animal feed, and biofuel production worldwide and its roots indicate spatio-temporal complexity and have distinct genetic control (Smith and De Smet, 2012; Rogers and Benfey, 2015; Tai et al, 2016; Song et al, 2016). Lateral roots arise from embryonic primary and seminal roots and post-embryonic shoot-borne roots, constituting an extensive underground branching network which increases the interacting surface (Malamy, 2005; Hochholdinger and Zimmermann, 2008; Rogers and Benfey, 2015)
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