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Transcriptional regulatory networks in response to drought stress and rewatering in maize (Zea mays L.)

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Abstract

Drought severely affects the growth and development of maize, but there is a certain degree of compensation effect after rewatering. This study intends to elaborate the response mechanism of maize at the physiological and molecular level as well as excavating potential genes with strong drought resistance and recovery ability. Physiological indexes analysis demonstrated that stomata conductance, transpiration rate, photosynthesis rate, antioxidant enzymes, and proline levels in maize were significantly altered in response to drought for 60 and 96 h and rewatering for 3 days. At 60 h, 96 h, and R3d, we detected 3095, 1941, and 5966 differentially expressed genes (DEGs) and 221, 226, and 215 differentially expressed miRNAs. Weighted correlation network analysis (WGCNA) showed that DEGs responded to maize drought and rewatering through participating in photosynthesis, proline metabolism, ABA signaling, and oxidative stress. Joint analysis of DEGs, miRNA, and target genes showed that zma-miR529, miR5072, zma-miR167e, zma-miR167f, zma-miR167j, miR397, and miR6214 were involved to regulate SBPs, MYBs, ARFs, laccases, and antioxidant enzymes, respectively. Hundreds of differentially expressed DNA methylation-related 24-nt siRNA clusters overlap with DEGs, indicating that DNA methylation is involved in responses under drought stress. These results provide new insights into the molecular mechanisms of drought tolerance, and may identify new targets for breeding drought-tolerant maize lines.

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Acknowledgements

This research was funded by the National Key Research and Development Program of China, grant number 2017YFD0301106, and by China Postdoctoral Science Foundation, grant number 2020M682299, and by Henan maize industry technology system, grant number S2010-02-G10.

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Author notes

  1. Liru Cao and Xiaomin Lu have contributed equally to this work.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. National Key Laboratory of Wheat and Maize Crop Science, College of Agronomy, Henan Agricultural University, Zhengzhou, 450002, China

    Liru Cao, Pengyu Zhang, Jiaxu Fu & Tongchao Wang

  2. Grain Crops Research Institute, Henan Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Zhengzhou, 450002, China

    Liru Cao, Xiaomin Lu, Guorui Wang & Zhenhua Wang

  3. National Engineering Research Centre for Wheat, Zhengzhou, 450002, China

    Li Wei

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  1. Liru Cao
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  2. Xiaomin Lu
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  4. Pengyu Zhang
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Contributions

L.C., X.L., L.W., and T.W. conceived and designed this research; L.C., P.Z., X.W., and X.L. performed the experiment; L.C., G.W., and Z.W. analyzed the data; L.C. and X.L. wrote the manuscript. All authors have read and agreed to the published version of the manuscript.

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Correspondence to Zhenhua Wang, Li Wei or Tongchao Wang.

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Communicated by Bing Yang.

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Cao, L., Lu, X., Wang, G. et al. Transcriptional regulatory networks in response to drought stress and rewatering in maize (Zea mays L.). Mol Genet Genomics 296, 1203–1219 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00438-021-01820-y

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