Tian Tian, Qin Feng
State Key Laboratory of Plant Environmental Resilience, College of Biological Sciences, China Agricultural University, Beijing, 100193, China.
Stress Biol. 2023 May 19;3(1):13. doi: 10.1007/s44154-023-00091-4.
Droughts threaten crop yields worldwide. Compared to other major staple cereal crops, maize (Zea mays) is especially sensitive to drought, which can cause dramatic fluctuations in its yield potential. Natural maize populations contain many superior alleles that can enhance drought resistance through complex regulatory mechanisms. We recently de novo assembled the genome of a prominent drought-resistant maize germplasm, CIMBL55, and systematically dissected the genetic basis for its drought resistance on the genome, transcriptome, and epigenome levels. These analyses revealed 65 favorable drought resistance alleles in CIMBL55. Subsequently, we genetically verified the functions of the drought resistance genes ZmABF4, ZmNAC075, and ZmRtn16 and unraveled the function of ZmRtn16 on a molecular level.
干旱威胁着全球的作物产量。与其他主要的主粮谷物作物相比，玉米（Zea mays）对干旱尤为敏感，干旱会导致其产量潜力出现巨大波动。天然玉米群体包含许多优良等位基因，这些等位基因可通过复杂的调控机制增强抗旱性。我们最近对一种著名的抗旱玉米种质CIMBL55的基因组进行了从头组装，并在基因组、转录组和表观基因组水平上系统地剖析了其抗旱的遗传基础。这些分析揭示了CIMBL55中65个有利的抗旱等位基因。随后，我们对抗旱基因ZmABF4、ZmNAC075和ZmRtn16的功能进行了遗传验证，并在分子水平上阐明了ZmRtn16的功能。
