Full Length Research Paper

Cloning and characterization of a putative transcription factor induced by abiotic stress in Zea mays

Zhiwei Jia¹*, Yun Lian¹, Yun Zhu¹, Junguang He¹, Zuping Cao¹ and Guoying Wang^2*

¹State Key Laboratory of Agrobiotechnology, China Agricultural University, Beijing 100094, P.R. China.

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

*Corresponding author. E-mail: jiazhiwei80@gmail.com.

Accepted 29 September, 2009

   Abstract

bZIP transcription factors have been reported to play important roles in plant responses to abiotic stresses. Here, we reported the cloning and characterization of a putative bZIP transcription factor (ZmbZIP17) from maize inbred line Han21, which is up-regulated by drought treatment. The open reading frame sequence of ZmbZIP17 was obtained by using 5’RACE and RT-PCR. Sequence analysis showed that ZmbZIP17 encodes a polypeptide of 563 amino acids with predicted molecular mass of 59.8 kDa and pI of 5.6. Southern blot analysis showed that ZmbZIP17 exists as a single copy gene in maize genome. Subcellular localization of ZmbZIP17 was identified in nucleus. The results of real-time PCR analysis indicated that ZmbZIP17 was up-regulated by drought, heat, ABA and NaCl stress immediately, which suggested that ZmbZIP17 is an early stage responsive gene to various abiotic stresses. The result also showed that ZmbZIP17 expressed much higher in leaves than in other organs in maize seedlings.

Key words: Maize, ZmbZIP17, abiotic stress, subcellular localization.