Abstract:

STAT proteins are a class of transcription factors that play crucial roles in signal transduction and gene transcriptional activation.In plants,the expression of STAT genes are associated with abiotic stresses such as high temperature.To investigate whether maize STAT genes are involved in the response to high-temperature stress,two maize inbred lines,Zheng 58(tolerant to high-temperature stress)and PH6WC(sensitive to high temperature),were selected as materials.The plant tissues from five parts(root,stem,leaf,pollen,and filament)of plants grown under high-temperature and normal-temperature conditions were used for transcriptome sequencing.Based on the sequencing data,the structure of STAT genes,the physicochemical properties of the proteins encoded by STAT genes,and tissue-specific expression patterns of STAT genes under different temperatures and materials were analyzed.The results showed that two STAT genes were identified in maize,named Zm-STAT1 and Zm-STAT2.The protein encoded by Zm-STAT1 was hydrophobic,while that encoded by Zm-STAT2 was hydrophilic,both containing multiple functional and phosphorylation modification sites.Further expression analysis revealed that, with room temperature as the control, under high-temperature conditions, Zm-STAT1 gene was upregulated in the root of PH6WC and in the pollen and filament of Zheng 58, whereas Zm-STAT1 gene in the stem and leaf of PH6WC and Zm-STAT2 gene in the leaf of PH6WC were down-regulated expression. Under both temperature conditions,the expression level of Zm-STAT2 was significantly higher than that of Zm-STAT1 across all five tissues.Notably,Zm-STAT2 was induced by high temperature in root,stem,pollen,and filament in the heat-tolerant Zheng 58,suggesting that Zm-STAT2 gene was involved in high-temperature stress response.

Key words: Maize, High-temperature stress, STAT transcription factor, Gene structure, Expression pattern

CLC Number: 

• S513.03

• Q78基因工程(遗传工程)