biostudies-literatureXue MHainan Yazhou Bay Seed Labthe National Key Research and Development Program of ChinaChina Postdoctoral Science FoundationJiangsu Province Government1048https://www.ebi.ac.uk/biostudies/studies/S-EPMC11539784biostudies-literatureUnknown24(1)Heat stress has become one of the abiotic stresses that pose an increasing threat to maize production due to global warming. The Hsp20 gene family confers tolerance to various abiotic stresses in plants. However, very few Hsp20s have been identified in relation to maize thermotolerance. In this study, we conducted a comprehensive study of Hsp20s involved in thermotolerance in maize. A total of 33 maize Hsp20 genes (ZmHsp20s) were identified through scanning for a conserved α-crystalline domain (ACD), and they were categorized into 14 subfamilies based on phylogenetic analysis. These genes are distributed across all maize chromosomes and nine of them are in regions previously identified as heat-tolerance quantitative trait loci (hrQTL). These hrQTL-associated ZmHsp20s show variation in tissBMC plant biologyZmHsp18 screened from the ZmHsp20 gene family confers thermotolerance in maize.PMC115397842022M712701B23YQ1510JBGS [2021]0022022YFD1201804You YXu MCao JXue MZhang LChen SfalseZmHsp18 screened from the ZmHsp20 gene family confers thermotolerance in maize.Heat stress has become one of the abiotic stresses that pose an increasing threat to maize production due to global warming. The Hsp20 gene family confers tolerance to various abiotic stresses in plants. However, very few Hsp20s have been identified in relation to maize thermotolerance. In this study, we conducted a comprehensive study of Hsp20s involved in thermotolerance in maize. A total of 33 maize Hsp20 genes (ZmHsp20s) were identified through scanning for a conserved α-crystalline domain (ACD), and they were categorized into 14 subfamilies based on phylogenetic analysis. These genes are distributed across all maize chromosomes and nine of them are in regions previously identified as heat-tolerance quantitative trait loci (hrQTL). These hrQTL-associated ZmHsp20s show variation in tiss2024-01-01T00:00:00Z2024 Nov2026-07-02T03:19:39.018Z2025-04-06T10:12:37.528ZS-EPMC115397843950670010.1186/s12870-024-05763-5