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A maize stress-responsive Di19 transcription factor, ZmDi19-1, confers enhanced tolerance to salt in transgenic Arabidopsis

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Abstract

Key message

ZmDi19-1 can be induced by various abiotic stresses and enhance the salt tolerance of transgenic Arabidopsis thaliana.

Abstract

Drought-induced protein 19 (Di19) is an essential zinc finger family member that plays vital roles in regulating multiple stress responses. Here, the Di19 family gene in maize (Zea mays) ZmDi19-1 was characterized. We determined that ZmDi19-1 is constitutively expressed in root, stem, leaf and other maize tissues under normal conditions. In addition, ZmDi19-1 expression was induced by PEG and NaCl stresses. The subcellular localization revealed that ZmDi19-1 is a nuclear membrane protein. In yeast cells, ZmDi19-1 displayed transcriptional activity and could bind to the TACA(A/G)T sequence, which was corroborated using the dual luciferase reporter assay system. The overexpression of ZmDi19-1 in Arabidopsis thaliana enhanced the plants’ tolerance to salt stress. Compared with wild-type, the Arabidopsis ZmDi19-1-overexpressing lines had higher relative water and proline contents, and lower malondialdehyde contents, in leaves under salt-stress conditions. The transcriptome analysis revealed 1414 upregulated and 776 downregulated genes, and an RNA-seq analysis identified some differentially expressed genes, which may be downstream of ZmDi19-1, involved in salt-stress responses. The data demonstrated that ZmDi19-1 responds to salt stress and may impact the expression of stress-related genes in Arabidopsis.

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Abbreviations

ABA:

Abscisic acid

GFP:

Green fluorescent protein

MDA:

Malondialdehyde

REL:

Relative electrical leakage

ORF:

Open reading frame

qRT-PCR:

Quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (31871627, 31701436) and the Science and Technology Major Project of Anhui Province (18030701180).

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  1. Xingen Zhang and Huilin Cai contributed equally to this work.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. National Engineering Laboratory of Crop Stress Resistance Breeding, School of Life Sciences, Anhui Agricultural University, Hefei, 230036, China

    Xingen Zhang, Huilin Cai, Meng Lu, Qiye Wei, Lijuan Xu, Chen Bo, Qing Ma, Yang Zhao & Beijiu Cheng

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  1. Xingen Zhang
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299_2019_2467_MOESM1_ESM.tif

Fig S1 Validation of transgenic Arabidopsis overexpressing ZmDi19-1. a PCR analysis of transgenic Arabidopsis thaliana using ZmDi19-1 gene primers. b GUS staining of ZmDi19-1 transgenic Arabidopsis thaliana (TIFF 7511 kb)

Fig S2 Numbers of differentially expressed genes (TIFF 4836 kb)

299_2019_2467_MOESM3_ESM.tif

Fig S3 Expression levels of ABA-related genes in ZmDi19-1 transgenic Arabidopsis and WT after salt-stress treatments (TIFF 15050 kb)

Table S1 Twenty-eight differentially expressed genes (DOCX 17 kb)

Table S2 Primers used in this study (DOCX 17 kb)

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Zhang, X., Cai, H., Lu, M. et al. A maize stress-responsive Di19 transcription factor, ZmDi19-1, confers enhanced tolerance to salt in transgenic Arabidopsis. Plant Cell Rep 38, 1563–1578 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00299-019-02467-1

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