AUTHOR=Gillani Syed Faheem Anjum , Zhuang Zelong , Rasheed Adnan , Haq Inzamam Ul , Abbasi Asim , Ahmed Shakil , Wang Yinxia , Khan Muhammad Tajammal , Sardar Rehana , Peng Yunling TITLE=Brassinosteroids induced drought resistance of contrasting drought-responsive genotypes of maize at physiological and transcriptomic levels JOURNAL=Frontiers in Plant Science VOLUME=13 YEAR=2022 URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/plant-science/articles/10.3389/fpls.2022.961680 DOI=10.3389/fpls.2022.961680 ISSN=1664-462X ABSTRACT=

The present study investigated the brassinosteroid-induced drought resistance of contrasting drought-responsive maize genotypes at physiological and transcriptomic levels. The brassinosteroid (BR) contents along with different morphology characteristics, viz., plant height (PH), shoot dry weight (SDW), root dry weight (RDW), number of leaves (NL), the specific mass of the fourth leaf, and antioxidant activities, were investigated in two maize lines that differed in their degree of drought tolerance. In response to either control, drought, or brassinosteroid treatments, the KEGG enrichment analysis showed that plant hormonal signal transduction and starch and sucrose metabolism were augmented in both lines. In contrast, the phenylpropanoid biosynthesis was augmented in lines H21L0R1 and 478. Our results demonstrate drought-responsive molecular mechanisms and provide valuable information regarding candidate gene resources for drought improvement in maize crop. The differences observed for BR content among the maize lines were correlated with their degree of drought tolerance, as the highly tolerant genotype showed higher BR content under drought stress.