Crop Genetics & Breeding · Germplasm Resources · Biotechnology
Liru CAO, Feiyu YE, Weiya LI, Chenchen MA, Yunyun PANG, Xiaohan LIANG, Xin ZHANG, Xiaomin LU
Auxin response factor(ARF)is a class of transcription factors with B3 domain,which is a direct molecule regulating auxin response and controlling gene expression.A gene,ZmARF10,which encoded ARF protein and actively participated in drought-rehydration stress response,was previously screened in maize by analyzed transcriptome data.To further research the molecular mechanism of ZmARF10 regulating drought resistance of maize,and also provide a new idea for molecular breeding of drought resistance,the gene was firstly analyzed by bioinformatics software.Secondly,Quantitative Real-time polymerase chain reaction(qRT-PCR)was used to detect the expression pattern of ZmARF10 in different tissues,under high temperature,drought,high salt,ABA and restoring treatments,and in different inbred lines.Finally,the function of ZmARF10 was analyzed using CRISPR/Cas9 technology.The results showed that ZmARF10 was located on chromosome 3 of maize,with a total length of 2 127 bp,and encoded 708 amino acids with a typical B3 domain.The upstream 2 kb region of ATG of this gene contained response elements related to methyl jasmonate,auxin,abscisic acid and low temperature.The phylogenetic tree showed that the protein encoded by the ZmARF10 gene was closely related to sorghum.qRT-PCR results showed that ZmARF10 was a constitutive expression gene,and the expression level of ZmARF10 was the highest in mature corn roots of maize.Under high temperature,drought,high salt and ABA treatments,the expression of this gene was significantly up-regulated,and the up-regulation ratio was up to 8.2 times after drought stress.After drought stress,the expression level of ZmARF10 gene was significantly higher in the drought-resistant inbred line Zheng 36 than that in the drought-sensitive inbred line B73.Investigation of Arabidopsis wild type and ARF10-deficient mutants showed that,compared with wild type,the mutant plants showed leaf wilting and even dry death,roots curled,root branch number decreased,and lateral root growth and development were hindered under drought conditions.Determination of physiological and biochemical indexes showed that the relative water content,chlorophyll content and net photosynthetic rate of the deficient mutants were significantly lower than those of the wild-type plants after drought stress,indicating that the drought resistance of Arabidopsis decreased after ARF10 gene was knocked out.