Journal
PLANT CELL
Volume 34, Issue 8, Pages 2833-2851Publisher
OXFORD UNIV PRESS INC
DOI: 10.1093/plcell/koac137
Keywords
-
Funding
- State's Key Project of Research and Development Plan of China [2020YFA0509902]
- National Natural Science Foundation of China [31872658, 32022008, 31921001]
Ask authors/readers for more resources
This study identifies a negative regulator, bZIP68, that negatively regulates cold tolerance in maize and reveals its differential expression in response to cold stress between maize and its wild ancestor teosinte, which is attributed to natural variation in the bZIP68 promoter.
Maize (Zea mays) originated in tropical areas and is thus susceptible to low temperatures, which pose a major threat to maize production. Our understanding of the molecular basis of cold tolerance in maize is limited. Here, we identified bZIP68, a basic leucine zipper (bZIP) transcription factor, as a negative regulator of cold tolerance in maize. Transcriptome analysis revealed that bZIP68 represses the cold-induced expression of DREB1 transcription factor genes. The stability and transcriptional activity of bZIP68 are controlled by its phosphorylation at the conserved Ser250 residue under cold stress. Furthermore, we demonstrated that the bZIP68 locus was a target of selection during early domestication. A 358-bp insertion/deletion (Indel-972) polymorphism in the bZIP68 promoter has a significant effect on the differential expression of bZIP68 between maize and its wild ancestor teosinte. This study thus uncovers an evolutionary cis-regulatory variant that could be used to improve cold tolerance in maize. The transcription factor bZIP68 negatively regulates cold tolerance in maize, and natural variation in the bZIP68 promoter underlies its difference in expression between maize and teosinte.
Authors
I am an author on this paper
Click your name to claim this paper and add it to your profile.
Reviews
Recommended
No Data Available