A genome‐wide association study uncovers a ZmRap2.7‐ZCN9/ZCN10 module to regulate ABA signalling and seed vigour in maize

• Published in: Plant biotechnology journal 2024-09, Vol.22 (9), p.2472-2487
• Main Authors: Guo, Shasha, Ai, Junmin, Zheng, Nannan, Hu, Hairui, Xu, Zhuoyi, Chen, Quanquan, Li, Li, Liu, Yunjun, Zhang, Hongwei, Li, Jieping, Pan, Qingchun, Chen, Fanjun, Yuan, Lixing, Fu, Junjie, Gu, Riliang, Wang, Jianhua, Du, Xuemei
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Abscisic acid; Abscisic Acid - metabolism; accelerated ageing; Aging; Binding; Corn; Crop yield; Domestication; Embryos; Flowering; Gene Expression Regulation, Plant; Gene regulation; Genes; Genome-wide association studies; Genome-Wide Association Study; Genomes; Germination; Kinases; maize; Molecular modelling; natural variation; Phosphatidylethanolamine; Plant Proteins - genetics; Plant Proteins - metabolism; Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide - genetics; Proteins; Root development; seed vigour; Seedlings; Seeds; Seeds - genetics; Seeds - growth & development; Seeds - metabolism; Signal transduction; Signal Transduction - genetics; Single-nucleotide polymorphism; Transcription factors; Transcription Factors - genetics; Transcription Factors - metabolism; Vigor; Zea mays - genetics; Zea mays - growth & development; Zea mays - metabolism; ZmRap2.7
• ISSN: 1467-7644; 1467-7652; 1467-7652
• DOI: 10.1111/pbi.14362

Summary Seed vigour, including rapid, uniform germination and robust seedling establishment under various field conditions, is becoming an increasingly essential agronomic trait for achieving high yield in crops. However, little is known about this important seed quality trait. In this study, we performed a genome‐wide association study to identify a key transcription factor ZmRap2.7, which regulates seed vigour through transcriptionally repressing expressions of three ABA signalling genes ZmPYL3, ZmPP2C and ZmABI5 and two phosphatidylethanolamine‐binding genes ZCN9 and ZCN10. In addition, ZCN9 and ZCN10 proteins could interact with ZmPYL3, ZmPP2C and ZmABI5 proteins, and loss‐of‐function of ZmRap2.7 and overexpression of ZCN9 and ZCN10 reduced ABA sensitivity and seed vigour, suggesting a complex regulatory network for regulation of ABA signalling mediated seed vigour. Finally, we showed that four SNPs in ZmRap2.7 coding region influenced its transcriptionally binding activity to the downstream gene promoters. Together with previously identified functional variants within and surrounding ZmRap2.7, we concluded that the distinct allelic variations of ZmRap2.7 were obtained independently during maize domestication and improvement, and responded separately for the diversities of seed vigour, flowering time and brace root development. These results provide novel genes, a new regulatory network and an evolutional mechanism for understanding the molecular mechanism of seed vigour.