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Characterization of a maize ERF gene, ZmERF1, in hormone and stress responses

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Abstract

ERFs are downstream component in ethylene signaling pathway and involved in plant’s abiotic stress response. The specific role of ERFs under stress and the molecular mechanism underlying the signaling cross talk still need to be elucidated. This study describes the isolation and characterization of ZmERF1 promoter. There were many cis-regulatory elements related to stress responses in the ZmERF1 promoter sequence. ZmERF1 could be highly induced by ABA and ethylene treatment in maize, suggesting that it might be at the crossroads of multiple hormone signaling pathways. Furthermore, ZmERF1 transgenic Arabidopsis lines (35S::ZmERF1) showed higher salt-tolerant, drought- and heat resistance. Consistently, tolerance-related genes were up-regulated in 35S::ZmERF1 lines compared with the WT plants in Arabidopsis. Overall, ZmERF1 might play an important role in plant resistance to a coercive environment by mediating various physiological processes via ethylene and ABA signaling pathways.

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Abbreviations

ABA:

Abscisic acid

ERF:

Ethylene response factor

MS:

Murashige and Skoog

ORF:

Open reading frame

Pro:

Proline

qPCR:

Real-time quantitative PCR

RT-PCR:

Reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction

TFs:

Transcription factors

WT:

Wild type

X-Gluc:

5-bromo-4-chloro-3-indolyl glucuronide

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Acknowledgments

This work was funded by the National Hi-Tech Research and Development Program of China (2012AA10A307), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (31101157), the Key Program of Higher Education of Henan (15A210003).

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    Authors and Affiliations

    1. National Key Laboratory of Wheat and Maize Crop Science, Collaborative Innovation Center of Henan Grain Crops, College of Agronomy, Henan Agricultural University, 95 Wenhua Rd, Zhengzhou, 450002, China

      Qingling Shi, Yongbin Dong, Qiang Zhou, Dahe Qiao, Zhiyan Ma, Long Zhang & Yuling Li

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    1. Qingling Shi
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    2. Yongbin Dong
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    3. Qiang Zhou
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    7. Yuling Li
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    Correspondence to Yuling Li.

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    Communicated by H Li.

    Q. Shi and Y. Dong have contributed equally to this work.

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    Shi, Q., Dong, Y., Zhou, Q. et al. Characterization of a maize ERF gene, ZmERF1, in hormone and stress responses. Acta Physiol Plant 38, 126 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11738-016-2146-2

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    • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11738-016-2146-2

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