Overexpression of ZmEXPA5 reduces anthesis-silking interval and increases grain yield under drought and well-watered conditions in maize.

ABSTRACT: Drought is one of the major abiotic stresses affecting the maize production worldwide. As a cross-pollination crop, maize is sensitive to water stress at flowering stage. Drought at this stage leads to asynchronous development of male and female flower organ and increased interval between anthesis and silking, which finally causes failure of pollination and grain yield loss. In the present study, the expansin gene ZmEXPA5 was cloned and its function in drought tolerance was characterized. An indel variant in promoter of ZmEXPA5 is significantly associated with natural variation in drought-induced anthesis-silking interval. The drought susceptible haplotypes showed lower expression level of ZmEXPA5 than tolerant haplotypes and lost the cis-regulatory activity of

SUBMITTER: Tao K 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10667192 | biostudies-literature | 2023 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature