Genes & Genomics

, Volume 34, Issue 3, pp 265–273 | Cite as

Revelation of the early responses of salt tolerance in maize via SSH libraries

  • Dong Ding
  • Zhixia Xiao
  • Hailin Xiao
  • Tao Xia
  • YongLian Zheng
  • Fazhan Qiu
Research Article
First Online:
Received:
Accepted:

Abstract

Maize (Zea mays L.), one of the most important cereal crops in the world, is salt-sensitive. It is critical to study the genes associated with salt tolerance, the differential gene expression pattern between salt-tolerant and salt-sensitive lines, and the mechanism of salt tolerance in maize. Two maize inbred lines with different salt sensitivity, NC286 and Huangzao4, were used to reveal early responsive genes under high salinity condition. Suppression subtractive hybridization (SSH) assay was conducted to identify potential genes involved in the early stage of maize seedlings in responses to 200mM NaCl. A custom μparaflo™ microfluidic array (LC science USA) containing Release version 10.1 plant miRNA probes (http://microrna.sanger.ac.uk/) was used to discover salt stress responsive miRNAs using the differences in miRNAs expression between these two maize lines. Cis-elemnet analysis was performed in the promoter regions of these two kinds of salt stress responsive transcriptions. The expression of a total of 141 unique genes was significantly changed under 200mM NaCl salt shock within 24 hours. These genes were involved in a broad spectrum of biochemical, cellular, and physiological processes. They were assigned to 14 categories based on their biological functions. Some of them were previously reported to be associated with biotic and abiotic stresses, and several novel genes detected. A gene model was proposed which showed how these genes could sense and response to the high salinity environment. The promoter regions of these 141 salt responsive genes were analyzed, and salt responsive key cis-elements uncovered. The cis-elements usage bias of the salt responsive mRNAs and non-coding RNAs were of the same. The different expression profiles of the genes, especially the ones involved in salt signal cascades and phytohormones responding, could explain the different salt stress response in the two maize inbred lines. The similar cis-elements usage bias of two kinds of salt responsive transcriptions suggests they may be regulated by the same trans-factors.

Keywords

Maize (Zea mays L.) Salt stress Gene expression Suppression Subtractive Hybridization (SSH) Cis-elememts 
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Supplementary material

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Copyright information

© The Genetics Society of Korea and Springer Netherlands 2012

Authors and Affiliations

  • Dong Ding
    • 1
    • 2
  • Zhixia Xiao
    • 1
  • Hailin Xiao
    • 1
  • Tao Xia
    • 3
  • YongLian Zheng
    • 1
  • Fazhan Qiu
    • 1
  1. 1.National Key Laboratory of Crop Genetic ImprovementHuazhong Agricultural UniversityWuhanChina
  2. 2.College of AgronomyHenan Agricultural UniversityZhengzhouChina
  3. 3.College of Life Science East China Normal UniversityShanghaiChina

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