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Cloning and characterization of the stress-induced bZIP gene ZmbZIP60 from maize

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Abstracts

ZmbZIP60 is a member of the bZIP transcription factor family in maize. Expression of ZmbZIP60 is strongly induced by a wide spectrum of stresses, including dehydration, high salinity, abscisic acid and tunicamycin treatments. A truncated form of ZmbZIP60, without a transmembrane domain (ZmbZIP60ΔC) and fused with GFP, is localized in the nucleus, suggesting the translocation of the native protein to the nucleus by release from the membrane. Yeast one-hybrid analysis showed that both ZmbZIP60 and ZmbZIP60ΔC had transcriptional activity. The expression of ZmbZIP60 in Arabidopsis bzip60 mutant partially restored the induction of BiP3 transcription under TM treatment, which indicated that ZmbZIP60 may play a role in the signal transduction of endoplasmic reticulum stress. Overexpression of ZmbZIP60 in wild-type Arabidopsis displayed enhanced bolting trends when subjected to dithiothreitol stress. Real-time PCR analysis revealed that some key genes in floral transition, including CO, FT, and AP1, were up- or down-regulated in ZmbZIP60-overexpressing plants, which may reveal the functional difference of ZmbZIP60 from AtbZIP60.

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Acknowledgment

This study was supported by the Natural Science Foundation of China (30730063).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. State Key Laboratory of Agrobiotechnology, Department of Seed Science and Technology, China Agricultural University, Beijing, 100193, China

    Bo Wang, Jianhua Wang & Guoying Wang

  2. Institute of Crop Sciences, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Beijing, 100081, China

    Bo Wang, Jun Zheng, Yunjun Liu & Guoying Wang

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  1. Bo Wang
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  2. Jun Zheng
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  3. Yunjun Liu
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  4. Jianhua Wang
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  5. Guoying Wang
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Corresponding authors

Correspondence to Jianhua Wang or Guoying Wang.

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11033_2012_1453_MOESM1_ESM.tif

Supplement Fig. 1 Sequence analysis of ZmbZIP60. a ZmbZIP60’s nucleotide residues which are different to sequences published in NCBI database are in blackbody. b Partial sequence of cDNA derived from unspliced form of ZmbZIP60 mRNA. Arrows indicate the putative splicing sites. Amino acid sequence in red indicates the predicted TMD. (TIFF 2947 kb)

11033_2012_1453_MOESM2_ESM.tif

Supplement Fig. 2 Gene structure of ZmbZIP60, the solid boxes represents exons, and the lines represent introns. (TIFF 313 kb)

Supplement Fig. 3 Verification of transgenic lines b7 and b15. (TIFF 811 kb)

11033_2012_1453_MOESM4_ESM.tif

Supplement Fig. 4 Bolting of ZmbZIP60 over-expressing plants under normal condition. a Growth of b7 and b15 on MS plates. Four-day-old seedlings were transplanted to MS plates and cultured vertically. b Bolting rates (BR) was recorded. c At 30 day, the length of inflorescence was measured. (TIFF 2725 kb)

11033_2012_1453_MOESM5_ESM.tif

Supplement Fig. 5 Quantitative RT-PCR analysis of the expression of the BiP2, Sar1 and FT gene in wild-type and atbzip60 mutant. a qRT-PCR analysis of the expression of the BiP2 gene relative to actin. b qRT-PCR analysis of the expression of the Sar1 gene relative to actin. c qRT-PCR analysis of the expression of the FT gene relative to actin. Total RNA was extracted from wild-type and atbzip60 mutant seedlings treated with DMSO (as a solvent control) or 5 μg/ml tunicamycin (TM) for 5 h and analyzed by quantitative RT-PCR. (TIFF 1355 kb)

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Wang, B., Zheng, J., Liu, Y. et al. Cloning and characterization of the stress-induced bZIP gene ZmbZIP60 from maize. Mol Biol Rep 39, 6319–6327 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11033-012-1453-y

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11033-012-1453-y

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