Details

Autor(en) / Beteiligte

• Pan, Zhenyuan
• Liu, Min
• Zhao, Hailiang
• Tan, Zengdong
• Liang, Kun
• Sun, Qin
• Gong, Dianming
• He, Haijun
• Zhou, Wenqi
• Qiu, Fazhan

Titel

ZmSRL5 is involved in drought tolerance by maintaining cuticular wax structure in maize

Ist Teil von

• Journal of integrative plant biology, 2020-12, Vol.62 (12), p.1895-1909

Ort / Verlag

China (Republic : 1949- ): Wiley Subscription Services, Inc

Erscheinungsjahr

2020

Quelle

Wiley-Blackwell Journals

Beschreibungen/Notizen

• Cuticular wax is a natural barrier on terrestrial plant organs, which protects plants from damages caused by a variety of stresses. Here, we report the identification and functional characterization of a cuticular‐wax‐related gene, Zea mays L. SEMI‐ROLLED LEAF 5 (ZmSRL5). The loss‐of‐function mutant srl5, which was created by a 3,745 bp insertion in the first intron that led to the premature transcript, exhibited abnormal wax crystal morphology and distribution, which, in turn, caused the pleiotropic phenotypes including increased chlorophyll leaching and water loss rate, decreased leaf temperature, sensitivity to drought, as well as semi‐rolled mature leaves. However, total wax amounts showed no significant difference between wild type and semi‐rolled leaf5 (srl5) mutant. The phenotype of srl5 was confirmed through the generation of two allelic mutants using CRISPR/Cas9. ZmSRL5 encodes a CASPARIAN‐STRIP‐MEMBRANE‐DOMAIN‐LIKE (CASPL) protein located in plasma membrane, and highly expressed in developing leaves. Further analysis showed that the expressions of the most wax related genes were not affected or slightly altered in srl5. This study, thus, primarily uncovers that ZmSRL5 is required for the structure formation of the cuticular wax and could increase the drought tolerance by maintaining the proper cuticular wax structure in maize. ZmSRL5 encodes a CASPARIAN‐STRIP‐MEMBRANE‐DOMAIN‐LIKE (CASPL) protein that is located in the plasma membrane and is required for the proper formation of cuticular wax. Mutation of ZmSRL5 results in disordered cuticular wax structure, increased cuticular permeability and drought sensitivity, as well as semi‐rolled leaves.