Division Zone Activity Determines the Potential of Drought‐Stressed Maize Leaves to Resume Growth after Rehydration
Drought is one of the most devastating causes of yield losses in crops like maize, and the anticipated increases in severity and duration of drought spells due to climate change pose an imminent threat to agricultural productivity. To understand the drought response, phenotypic and molecular studies are typically performed at a given time point after drought onset, representing a steady-state adaptation response. Because growth is a dynamic process, we monitored the drought response with high temporal resolution and examined cellular and transcriptomic changes after rehydration at 4 and 6 days after leaf four appearance. These data showed that division zone activity is a determinant for full organ growth recovery upon rehydration. Moreover, a prolonged maintenance of cell division by the ectopic expression of PLASTOCHRON1 extends the ability to resume growth after rehydration. The transcriptome analysis indicated that GROWTH-REGULATING FACTORS (GRFs) affect leaf growth by impacting cell division duration, which was confirmed by a prolonged recovery potential of the GRF1-overexpression line after rehydration. Finally, we used a multiplex genome editing approach to evaluate the most promising differentially expressed genes from the transcriptome study and as such narrowed down the gene space from 40 to seven genes for future functional characterization.
Authors
- Lennart Verbraeken (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8028-7088)
- Christian Damian Lorenzo (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3954-0234)
- Michael L. Nuccio (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7238-8361)
- Tom Ruttink (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1012-9399)
- Julie Merchie (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1735-5118)
- Bernard Cannoot (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9982-0890)
- Kirin Demuynck (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8772-3505)
- Heike Sprenger (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2435-5645)
- Tom Van Hautegem (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3173-2477)
- Frédéric Van Ex (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2481-0115)
- Stijn Aesaert (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8787-7347)
- Kévin Debray (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2898-9415)
- Griet Coussens (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2285-5782)
- Hironori Takasaki (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3273-9291)
- Dries Schaumont (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4389-0440)
- Julie Pevernagie (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9868-7474)
- Dirk Inzé (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3217-8407)
- Thomas B. Jacobs (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5408-492X)
- Laurens Pauwels (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0221-9052)
- Hilde Nelissen (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7494-1290)
- Hannes Claeys (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9384-4138)
- Timothy Villers (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8874-7381)
- Kazuko Yamaguchi‐Shinozaki (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0249-8258)
Institutions
- Ghent University (BE)
- VIB-UGent Center for Plant Systems Biology (BE)
- Inari Agriculture (United States) (US)
- The University of Tokyo (JP)
Publication Details
- Journal
- Plant Cell & Environment
- Published
- 2024-10-23
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1111/pce.15227
- Citations
- 6
- Primary Topic
- Plant Stress Responses and Tolerance
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 3.60
Funders
- Agentschap Innoveren en Ondernemen
- European Commission
- Vlaamse regering
- Horizon 2020 Framework Programme