1. Academic Validation
  2. Modifying the Expression of Cysteine Protease Gene PCP Affects Pollen Development, Germination and Plant Drought Tolerance in Maize

Modifying the Expression of Cysteine Protease Gene PCP Affects Pollen Development, Germination and Plant Drought Tolerance in Maize

  • Int J Mol Sci. 2023 Apr 17;24(8):7406. doi: 10.3390/ijms24087406.
Yanhua Li 1 Liangjie Niu 1 Xiaoli Zhou 1 Hui Liu 1 Fuju Tai 1 Wei Wang 1
Affiliations

Affiliation

  • 1 National Key Laboratory of Wheat and Maize Crop Science, College of Life Sciences, Henan Agricultural University, Zhengzhou 450046, China.
Abstract

Cysteine proteases (CPs) are vital proteolytic Enzymes that play critical roles in various plant processes. However, the particular functions of CPs in maize remain largely unknown. We recently identified a pollen-specific CP (named PCP), which highly accumulated on the surface of maize pollen. Here, we reported that PCP played an important role in pollen germination and drought response in maize. Overexpression of PCP inhibited pollen germination, while mutation of PCP promoted pollen germination to some extent. Furthermore, we observed that germinal apertures of pollen grains in the PCP-overexpression transgenic lines were excessively covered, whereas this phenomenon was not observed in the wild type (WT), suggesting that PCP regulated pollen germination by affecting the germinal aperture structure. In addition, overexpression of PCP enhanced drought tolerance in maize Plants, along with the increased activities of the antioxidant Enzymes and the decreased numbers of the root cortical cells. Conversely, mutation of PCP significantly impaired drought tolerance. These results may aid in clarifying the precise functions of CPs in maize and contribute to the development of drought-tolerant maize Materials.

Keywords

Zea mays; drought tolerance; pollen cysteine protease (PCP); pollen germination; transgenic plants.

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