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Roles of a maize phytochrome-interacting factors protein ZmPIF3 in regulation of drought stress responses by controlling stomatal closure in transgenic rice without yield penalty

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ZmPIF3 plays an important role in ABA-mediated regulation of stomatal closure in the control of water loss, and can improve both drought tolerance and did not affect the grain yield in the transgenic rice.

Abstract

Phytochrome-interacting factors (PIFs) are a subfamily of basic helix-loop-helix (bHLH) transcription factors and play important roles in regulating plant growth and development. In our previous study, overexpression of a maize PIFs family gene, ZmPIF3, improved drought tolerance in transgenic rice. In this study, measurement of water loss rate, transpiration rate, stomatal conductance, guard cell aperture, density and length of ZmPIF3 transgenic plants showed that ZmPIF3 can enhance water-saving and drought-resistance by decreasing stomatal aperture and reducing transpiration in both transgenic rice and transgenic Arabidopsis. Scrutiny of sensitivity to ABA showed that ZmPIF3 transgenic rice was hypersensitive to ABA, while the endogenous ABA level was not significantly changed. These results indicate that ZmPIF3 plays a major role in the ABA signaling pathway. In addition, DGE results further suggest that ZmPIF3 participates in the ABA signaling pathway and regulates stomatal aperture in rice. Comparison analysis of the phenotype, physiology, and transcriptome of ZmPIF3 transgenic rice compared to control plants further suggests that ZmPIF3 is a positive regulator of ABA signaling and enhances water-saving and drought-resistance traits by reducing stomatal openings to control water loss. Moreover, investigation of the agronomic traits of ZmPIF3 transgenic rice from four cultivating seasons showed that ZmPIF3 expression increased the tiller and panicle number and did not affect the grain yield in the transgenic rice. These results demonstrate that ZmPIF3 is a promising candidate gene in the transgenic breeding of water-saving and drought-resistant rice plants and crop improvement.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 31771686); Natural Science Foundation of the Jiangsu Province (No. BK20161334); State Key Laboratory of Crop Biology (No. 2016KF03). We also thank another financial support for the Priority Academic Program Development of Jiangsu Higher Education Institutions and State Key Laboratory of Crop Biology.

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  1. Yong Gao and Meiqin Wu have contributed equally to this work.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Jiangsu Key Laboratories of Crop Genetics and Physiology and Plant Functional Genomics of the Ministry of Education, Yangzhou University, 88 South University Ave, Yangzhou, 225009, Jiangsu, China

    Yong Gao, Meiqin Wu, Menjiao Zhang, Wei Jiang, Enxing Liang, Dongping Zhang, Changquan Zhang & Jianmin Chen

  2. Lixiahe Region Agricultural Scientific Research Institute of Jiangsu, Yangzhou, 225009, Jiangsu, China

    Ning Xiao

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  1. Yong Gao
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  2. Meiqin Wu
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YG and JC conceived and designed the experiments; YG, MW, MZ, WJ, EL, NX and CZ performed the experiments; YG, DZ and JC analyzed the data and wrote the paper.

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Correspondence to Jianmin Chen.

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Gao, Y., Wu, M., Zhang, M. et al. Roles of a maize phytochrome-interacting factors protein ZmPIF3 in regulation of drought stress responses by controlling stomatal closure in transgenic rice without yield penalty. Plant Mol Biol 97, 311–323 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11103-018-0739-4

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