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A systems approach to a spatio-temporal understanding of the drought stress response in maize.

ABSTRACT: Crops are often subjected to periods of drought stress during their life cycle. However, how stress response mechanisms contribute to the crosstalk between stress signaling pathways and developmental signaling pathways is still unknown. We built a gene co-expression network from a spatio-temporal transcriptomic map of the drought stress response in maize (Zea mays), profiled from three tissues and four developmental stages and characterized hub genes associated with duplication events, selection, and regulatory networks. Co-expression analysis grouped drought-response genes into ten modules, covering 844 highly connected genes (hub genes). Of these, 15.4% hub genes had diverged by whole-genome duplication events and 2.5% might then have been selected during natural domestication and artificial improvement processes, successively. We identified key transcription factor hubs in a transcriptional regulatory network, which may function as a crosstalk mechanism between drought stress and developmental signalling pathways in maize. Understanding the evolutionary biases that have evolved to enhance drought adaptation lays the foundation for further dissection of crosstalk between stress signalling pathways and developmental signalling pathways in maize, towards molecular design of new cultivars with desirable yield and greater stress tolerance.

SUBMITTER: Miao Z

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5529502 | biostudies-literature | 2017 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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A systems approach to a spatio-temporal understanding of the drought stress response in maize.

Miao Zhenyan Z Han Zhaoxue Z Zhang Ting T Chen Siyuan S Ma Chuang C

Scientific reports 20170726 1

Crops are often subjected to periods of drought stress during their life cycle. However, how stress response mechanisms contribute to the crosstalk between stress signaling pathways and developmental signaling pathways is still unknown. We built a gene co-expression network from a spatio-temporal transcriptomic map of the drought stress response in maize (Zea mays), profiled from three tissues and four developmental stages and characterized hub genes associated with duplication events, selection ...[more]

PMID: 28747711

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Project description:The growth and development of maize roots are closely related to drought tolerance. In order to clarify the molecular mechanisms of drought tolerance between different maize (Zea mays L.) varieties at the protein level, the isobaric tags for relative and absolute quantitation (iTRAQ) quantitative proteomics were used for the comparative analysis of protein expression in the seedling roots of the drought-tolerant Chang 7-2 and drought-sensitive TS141 maize varieties under 20% polyethylene glycol 6000 (PEG 6000)-simulated drought stress. We identified a total of 7723 differentially expressed proteins (DEPs), 1243 were significantly differentially expressed in Chang 7-2 following drought stress, 572 of which were up-regulated and 671 were down-regulated; 419 DEPs were identified in TS141, 172 of which were up-regulated and 247 were down-regulated. In Chang 7-2, the DEPs were associated with ribosome pathway, glycolysis/gluconeogenesis pathway, and amino sugar and nucleotide sugar metabolism. In TS141, the DEPs were associated with metabolic pathway, phenylpropanoid biosynthesis pathway, and starch and sucrose metabolism. Compared with TS141, the higher drought tolerance of Chang 7-2 root system was attributed to a stronger water retention capacity; the synergistic effect of antioxidant enzymes; the strengthen cell wall; the osmotic stabilization of plasma membrane proteins; the effectiveness of recycling amino acid; and an improvement in the degree of lignification. The common mechanisms of the drought stress response between the two varieties included: The promotion of enzymes in the glycolysis/gluconeogenesis pathway; cross-protection against the toxicity of aldehydes and ammonia; maintenance of the cell membrane stability. Based on the proteome sequencing information, the coding region sequences of eight DEP-related genes were analyzed at the mRNA level by quantitative real-time PCR (qRT-PCR). The findings of this study can inform the future breeding of drought-tolerant maize varieties.

Project description:BackgroundDrought is a serious causal factor of reduced crop yields than any other abiotic stresses. As one of the most widely distributed crops, maize plants frequently suffer from drought stress, which causes great losses in the final kernel yield. Drought stress response in plants showed tissue- and developmental stage-specific characteristics.ResultsIn this study, the ears at the V9 stage, kernels and ear leaf at the 5DAP (days after pollination) stage of maize were used for morphological, physiological and comparative transcriptomics analysis to understand the different features of "sink" or "source" organs and the effects on kernel yield under drought stress conditions. The ABA-, NAC-mediate signaling pathway, osmotic protective substance synthesis and protein folding response were identified as common drought stress response in the three organs. Tissue-specific drought stress responses and the regulators were identified, they were highly correlated with growth, physiological adaptation and yield loss under drought stress. For ears, drought stress inhibited ear elongation, led to the abnormal differentiation of the paired spikelet, and auxin signaling involved in the regulation of cell division and growth and primordium development changes. In the kernels, reduced kernel size caused by drought stress was observed, and the obvious differences of auxin, BR and cytokine signaling transduction appeared, which indicated the modification in carbohydrate metabolism, cell differentiation and growth retardation. For the ear leaf, dramatically and synergistically reduced the expression of photosynthesis genes were observed when suffered from drought stress, the ABA- and NAC- mediate signaling pathway played important roles in the regulation of photosynthesis.ConclusionsTranscriptomic changes caused by drought were highly correlated with developmental and physiological adaptation, which was closely related to the final yield of maize, and a sketch of tissue- and developmental stage-specific responses to drought stress in maize was drafted.

Dataset Information

A systems approach to a spatio-temporal understanding of the drought stress response in maize.

Publications

A systems approach to a spatio-temporal understanding of the drought stress response in maize.

Similar Datasets

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