Zhou Xuemei, Muhammad Imran, Lan Hai, Xia Chao
Maize Research Institute, Sichuan Agricultural University, Chengdu, China.
Department of Chemistry, Punjab College of Science, Faisalabad, Pakistan.
Front Plant Sci. 2022 Apr 12;13:866034. doi: 10.3389/fpls.2022.866034. eCollection 2022.
Maize ( L.) is an annual grass that originated in tropical and subtropical regions of the New World. Maize is highly sensitive to cold stress during seed gemination and the seedling phase, which can lead to reductions in plant vigor and grain production. There are large differences in the morphological and physiological changes caused by cold stress among maize varieties. In general, cold tolerant varieties have a stronger ability to maintain such changes in traits related to seed germination, root phenotypes, and shoot photosynthesis. These morphological and physiological characteristics have been widely used to evaluate the cold tolerance of maize varieties in genetic analyses. In recent years, considerable progress has been made in elucidating the mechanisms of maize in response to cold tolerance. Several QTL, GWAS, and transcriptomic analyses have been conducted on various maize genotypes and populations that show large variations in cold tolerance, resulting in the discovery of hundreds of candidate cold regulation genes. Nevertheless, only a few candidate genes have been functionally characterized. In the present review, we summarize recent progress in molecular, physiological, genetic, and genomic analyses of cold tolerance in maize. We address the advantages of joint analyses that combine multiple genetic and genomic approaches to improve the accuracy of identifying cold regulated genes that can be further used in molecular breeding. We also discuss the involvement of long-distance signaling in plant cold tolerance. These novel insights will provide a better mechanistic understanding of cold tolerance in maize.
玉米（L.）是一种一年生草本植物，原产于新大陆的热带和亚热带地区。玉米在种子萌发和幼苗期对冷胁迫高度敏感，这可能导致植株活力和籽粒产量下降。不同玉米品种在冷胁迫引起的形态和生理变化方面存在很大差异。一般来说，耐寒品种在维持与种子萌发、根系表型和地上部光合作用相关的性状变化方面能力更强。这些形态和生理特征已广泛用于遗传分析中评估玉米品种的耐寒性。近年来，在阐明玉米耐寒机制方面取得了相当大的进展。已经对各种耐寒性差异很大的玉米基因型和群体进行了多项数量性状位点（QTL）、全基因组关联研究（GWAS）和转录组分析，发现了数百个候选冷调控基因。然而，只有少数候选基因得到了功能鉴定。在本综述中，我们总结了玉米耐寒性在分子、生理、遗传和基因组分析方面的最新进展。我们阐述了联合分析的优势，即结合多种遗传和基因组方法来提高鉴定可进一步用于分子育种的冷调控基因的准确性。我们还讨论了长距离信号传导在植物耐寒性中的作用。这些新见解将为更好地理解玉米的耐寒机制提供帮助。
