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Overexpression of maize mitogen-activated protein kinase gene, ZmSIMK1 in Arabidopsis increases tolerance to salt stress

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Abstract

Mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) cascades play a remarkably crucial role in plants. It has been studied intensively in model plants Arabidopsis, tobacco and rice. However, the function of MAPKs in maize (Zea mays L.) has not been well documented. ZmSIMK1 (Zea mays salt-induced mitogen-activated protein kinase 1) is a previously identified MAPK gene in maize. In this research, we charactered ZmSIMK1 and showed that ZmSIMK1 was involved in Arabidopsis salt stress. The genomic organization of ZmSIMK1 gene and its expression in maize have been analyzed. In order to investigate the function of ZmSIMK1, we generated transgenic Arabidopsis constitutively overexpressing ZmSIMK1. Ectopic expression of ZmSIMK1 in Arabidopsis resulted in increased resistance against salt stress. Importantly, ZmSIMK1-overexpressing Arabidopsis exhibited constitutive expression of stress-responsive marker genes, RD29A and P5CS1. Furthermore, RD29A and P5CS1 were upregulated under salt stress. These results suggest that ZmSIMK1 may play an important role in plant salt stress.

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Acknowledgments

Many thanks to Professor Juren Zhang for providing helpful suggestions. This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Nos. 30471052, 30871457) and the State Key Basic Research and Development Plan of China (No. 2009CB118500), and also was supported by the Program for Changjiang Scholars and Innovative Research Team in University (No. IRT0635).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. State Key Laboratory of Crop Biology, College of Life Sciences, Shandong Agricultural University, Tai’an, Shandong, 271018, China

    Lingkun Gu, Yukun Liu, Xiaojuan Zong & De-Quan Li

  2. Department of Agronomy, Dezhou University, Dezhou, Shandong, 253023, China

    Lixia Liu

  3. College of Food Sciences, Shandong Agricultural University, 61 DaiZong Street, Tai’an, Shandong, 271018, China

    Da-Peng Li

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  1. Lingkun Gu
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Correspondence to De-Quan Li.

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Lingkun Gu and Yukun Liu have contributed equally to this work.

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Gu, L., Liu, Y., Zong, X. et al. Overexpression of maize mitogen-activated protein kinase gene, ZmSIMK1 in Arabidopsis increases tolerance to salt stress. Mol Biol Rep 37, 4067–4073 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11033-010-0066-6

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