ZmASR1 negatively regulates drought stress tolerance in maize

Yun Yang; Aiqi Li; Yuqing Liu; Jianguo Shu; Jiarong Wang; Yuxin Guo; Quanzhi Li; Jiahui Wang; Ao Zhou; Chengyun Wu; Jiandong Wu

doi:10.1016/j.plaphy.2024.108684

ZmASR1 negatively regulates drought stress tolerance in maize

Plant Physiol Biochem. 2024 May 1:211:108684. doi: 10.1016/j.plaphy.2024.108684. Online ahead of print.

Authors

Yun Yang¹, Aiqi Li¹, Yuqing Liu¹, Jianguo Shu¹, Jiarong Wang¹, Yuxin Guo¹, Quanzhi Li¹, Jiahui Wang¹, Ao Zhou¹, Chengyun Wu¹, Jiandong Wu²

Affiliations

¹ National Engineering Laboratory of Crop Stress Resistance Breeding, School of Life Sciences, Anhui Agricultural University, Hefei, Anhui, 230036, China.
² National Engineering Laboratory of Crop Stress Resistance Breeding, School of Life Sciences, Anhui Agricultural University, Hefei, Anhui, 230036, China. Electronic address: wujiandong@ahau.edu.cn.

PMID: 38710113
DOI: 10.1016/j.plaphy.2024.108684

Abstract

Abscisic acid-, stress-, and ripening-induced (ASR) proteins in plants play a significant role in plant response to diverse abiotic stresses. However, the functions of ASR genes in maize remain unclear. In the present study, we identified a novel drought-induced ASR gene in maize (ZmASR1) and functionally characterized its role in mediating drought tolerance. The transcription of ZmASR1 was upregulated under drought stress and abscisic acid (ABA) treatment, and the ZmASR1 protein was observed to exhibit nuclear and cytoplasmic localization. Moreover, ZmASR1 knockout lines generated with the CRISPR-Cas9 system showed lower ROS accumulation, higher ABA content, and a higher degree of stomatal closure than wild-type plants, leading to higher drought tolerance. Transcriptome sequencing data indicated that the significantly differentially expressed genes in the drought treatment group were mainly enriched in ABA signal transduction, antioxidant defense, and photosynthetic pathway. Taken together, the findings suggest that ZmASR1 negatively regulates drought tolerance and represents a candidate gene for genetic manipulation of drought resistance in maize.

Keywords: ABA signaling; Drought stress; Reactive oxygen species; ZmASR1.