A Nucleoporin NUP58 modulates responses to drought and salt stress in maize (Zea mays L.)

Zhixue Liu; Salah Fatouh Abou-Elwafa; Jiarong Xie; Yajing Liu; Siyuan Li; Maha Aljabri; Dongling Zhang; Fengran Gao; Lili Zhang; Zhiyong Wang; Chongyu Sun; Bingqi Zhu; Miaomiao Bao; Xiaomeng Hu; Yanhui Chen; Lixia Ku; Zhenzhen Ren; Li Wei

doi:10.1016/j.plantsci.2022.111296

A Nucleoporin NUP58 modulates responses to drought and salt stress in maize (Zea mays L.)

Plant Sci. 2022 Jul:320:111296. doi: 10.1016/j.plantsci.2022.111296. Epub 2022 Apr 22.

Authors

Zhixue Liu¹, Salah Fatouh Abou-Elwafa², Jiarong Xie¹, Yajing Liu¹, Siyuan Li³, Maha Aljabri⁴, Dongling Zhang¹, Fengran Gao¹, Lili Zhang¹, Zhiyong Wang¹, Chongyu Sun¹, Bingqi Zhu¹, Miaomiao Bao¹, Xiaomeng Hu¹, Yanhui Chen¹, Lixia Ku¹, Zhenzhen Ren⁵, Li Wei⁶

Affiliations

¹ Synergetic Innovation Center of Henan Grain Crops and National Key Laboratory of Wheat and Maize Crop Science, Henan Agricultural University, Zhengzhou, Henan, 450046, China.
² Agronomy Department, Faculty of Agriculture, Assiut University, Assiut, Egypt.
³ Corn Breeding and Research, China Seeds International Seeds Co., Ltd, Zhengzhou, Henan, 450046, China.
⁴ Department of Biology, Faculty of Applied Science, Umm Al-Qura University, Makkah 21421, Saudi Arabia.
⁵ Synergetic Innovation Center of Henan Grain Crops and National Key Laboratory of Wheat and Maize Crop Science, Henan Agricultural University, Zhengzhou, Henan, 450046, China. Electronic address: [email protected].
⁶ Synergetic Innovation Center of Henan Grain Crops and National Key Laboratory of Wheat and Maize Crop Science, Henan Agricultural University, Zhengzhou, Henan, 450046, China. Electronic address: [email protected].

PMID: 35643613
DOI: 10.1016/j.plantsci.2022.111296

Abstract

Nuclear pore complex (NUP) is the main transport channel between cytoplasm and nucleoplasm, which plays an important role in stress response. The function of NUPs was widely reported in yeast and vertebrate but rarely in plants. Here, we identified a nuclear pore complex (ZmNUP58), that is tightly associated with drought and salt tolerance phenotype accompanied with phenotypic and physiological changes under drought and salt stress. The overexpression of ZmNUP58 in maize (Zea mays L.) significantly promotes both chlorophyll content and activities of antioxidant enzymes under drought- and salt-stressed conditions. RNA-Seq analysis showed that ZmNUP58 could regulate the expression of genes related to phytohormone synthesis and signaling, osmotic adjustment substances, antioxidant enzyme system, cell wall biosynthesis, glucose metabolism and aquaporin. The results provide novel insights into the regulatory role of ZmNUP58 in improving drought and salt tolerance through regulating phytohormone and other stress response genes in maize.

Keywords: Drought tolerance; Maize; RNA-Seq; Salt stress; ZmNUP58.

MeSH terms

Antioxidants / metabolism
Droughts*
Gene Expression Regulation, Plant
Nuclear Pore Complex Proteins / genetics
Nuclear Pore Complex Proteins / metabolism
Plant Growth Regulators / metabolism
Salt Stress
Zea mays* / metabolism

Substances

Antioxidants
Nuclear Pore Complex Proteins
Plant Growth Regulators