ZmLBD2 a maize (Zea mays L.) lateral organ boundaries domain (LBD) transcription factor enhances drought tolerance in transgenic Arabidopsis thaliana

Abstract

Maize (Zea mays L.) is an annual gramineous herb and is among the world’s most important crop species. Drought is the main factor contributing to maize yield reduction. The lateral organ boundaries domain (LBD) proteins belong to a class of higher-plant-specific transcription factors. LBD proteins usually include the highly conserved lateral organ boundaries (LOB) domains that play essential roles in plant growth and response to biotic stresses. However, few studies have addressed the biological functions of LBD genes associated with maize response to drought. Here we cloned the ZmLBD2 gene from maize and described its role in combating drought. Investigating ZmLBD2 subcellular localization, we show that it localizes to the cell nucleus and can specifically bind with inverted repeats of “GCGGCG”. Under drought stress, Arabidopsis thaliana overexpressing ZmLBD2 performed better than the wild-type plants in terms of seed germination rates, root length, relative water content, fresh weight, chlorophyll content, proline content, and antioxidant enzyme content. Arabidopsis overexpressing ZmLBD2 contained less MDA, H2O2, and O2− than the wild-type plants. Our protein-protein interaction results indicate an interaction between the ZmLBD2 and ZmIAA5 genes. In conclusion, the ZmLBD2 gene positively regulates H2O2 homeostasis in plants, strengthening drought resistance.

Potential regulatory genes of light induced anthocyanin accumulation in sweet cherry identified by combining transcriptome and metabolome analysis

“…LBD is a plant-specific transcription factor which mainly affects the development of lateral vegetative organs such as leaves and roots ( Liang et al., 2022 ). In addition, LBD plays an important role in plant resistance to stress and disease ( Feng et al., 2022 ; Jiao et al., 2022 ). Regarding the role of LBD in anthocyanin biosynthesis, LBD in Arabidopsis is reported to regulate anthocyanin biosynthesis by inhibiting PAP1 and PAP2 ( Rubin et al., 2009 ).…”

Meta-Quantitative Trait Loci Analysis and Candidate Gene Mining for Drought Tolerance-Associated Traits in Maize (Zea mays L.)

“…Furthermore, MQTL9_3 contains ZmTIP1 that contributes to root hair elongation [56] and ZmVPP1 enhances photosynthetic efficiency and root development [49], ZmRtn16 of MQTL9_5, encoding a reticulon-like protein, was found to contribute to drought resistance by facilitating the vacuole H+-ATPase activity [57], ZmBSK1 of MQTL9_9 positively affects drought tolerance in maize [58], and ZmASR1, that affects the synthesis of branched-chain amino acids and maintains maize grain yield under drought conditions, is located in MQTL10_2 [59]. In addition, some drought tolerance genes were searched and found along 500 kb upstream and downstream of the MQTL regions, such as ZmLBD2 (MQTL1_1) [60], ZmCIPK3 (MQTL1_3) [50], ZmNF-YA3 (MQTL1_5) [61], ZmEREBP60 (MQTL1_7) [62], ZmNAC080308 (MQTL3_6) [63], ZmPP2C-A (MQTL4_9) [64], ZmALDH22A1 (MQTL7_8) [65], and ZmWRKY106 (MQTL8_10) [66].…”

ZmGRAS46 Negatively Regulates Flowering Time in Arabidopsis thaliana

“…Single colonies were picked and put into the YPDA liquid medium at 29 degrees Celsius for two days. The cultured bacterial liquid, positive bacterial liquid, and negative bacterial solution were spotted on SD/-Trp-Leu two-deficient solid medium and SD/-Trp-Leu-Ade-His, SD/-Trp-Leu-Ade-His-X-α-Gal four-deficient solid yeast medium at 29 degrees Celsius for two days to observe the growth [24].…”