Flavonoids improve drought tolerance of maize seedlings by regulating the homeostasis of reactive oxygen species

作者：Baozhu Li, Ruonan Fan, Guiling Sun, Ting Sun, Y. Fan, Shenglong Bai, Siyi Guo, Shiquan Huang, Jiong Liu, Hui Zhang, Pengtao Wang, Xiaohong Zhu, Chun‐Peng Song · 发表于：Plant and Soil · 年份：2021 · DOI：10.1007/s11104-020-04814-8 · 被引用次数：195 · 研究领域：Plant Stress Responses and Tolerance、Plant Gene Expression Analysis、Plant tissue culture and regeneration

Abstract Background and aims As drought threatens the yield and quality of maize ( Zea mays L.), it is important to dissect the molecular basis of maize drought tolerance. Flavonoids, participate in the scavenging of oxygen free radicals and alleviate stress-induced oxidative damages. This study aims to dissect the function of flavonoids in the improvement of maize drought tolerance. Methods Using far-infrared imaging screening, we previously isolated a drought overly insensitivity ( doi ) mutant from an ethyl methanesulfonate (EMS)-mutagenized maize library and designated it as doi57 . In this study, we performed a physiological characterization and transcriptome profiling of doi57 in comparison to corresponding wild-type B73 under drought stress. Results Under drought stress, doi57 seedlings displayed lower leaf-surface temperature (LST), faster water loss, and better performance in growth than B73. Transcriptome analysis reveals that key genes involved in flavonoid biosynthesis are enriched among differentially expressed genes in doi57 . In line with these results, more flavonols and less hydrogen peroxide (H 2 O 2 ) were accumulated in guard cells of doi57 than in those of B73 with the decrease of soil water content (SWC). Moreover, the capacity determined from doi57 seedling extracts to scavenge oxygen free radicals was more effective than that of B73 under the drought treatment. Additionally, doi57 seedlings had higher photosynthetic rates, stomatal conductance, transpi...