Transcriptome dynamic landscape underlying the improvement of maize
lodging resistance under coronatine treatment
Abstract
Lodging is a threat for maize production worldwide. Coronatine (COR) is
a jasmonic acid analog hopeful to be a new plant growth regulator in
agriculture. In this study, we demonstrated that the plant height of
ZD958 and XY335, two cultivated maize hybrids, was significantly
decreased under COR treatment via reducing internode length and thus
improve lodging resistance. To explore gene expression changes driving
the responses of internode to COR, spatio-temporal transcriptomic data
of inbred B73 internode were generated under normal condition and COR
treatment, including the fixed, meristem and elongation regions. The
transcriptional features of the three regions at normal condition were
characterized and then compared with that upon COR treatment. A total of
8605 COR-responsive genes (COR-RGs) were identified, including 802
internode specific genes. Both the number and function categories were
greatly changed for COR-RGs identified in fixed, meristem and elongation
regions, indicating different groups of genes were regulated at the
three regions. Besides, we found the expressions of more than 80% of
gibberellin and jasmonic acid related genes were changed under COR
treatment. The characterization of gene expression response in internode
under COR treatment here is useful for further unraveling the mechanism
of plant height decrease by COR.