Maize ZmBES1/BZR1‐4 recruits ZmTLP5 to regulate drought tolerance and seed development by regulating ZmPum6 and ZmMBP1

• DOI: 10.1111/tpj.70162
• Publication Date: 2025-04-14T15:52:01Z
• Authors: Wenqi Feng; Yuhan Zhou; Huaming Duan; Wenxi Zhou; Xin Zhang; Yuan Liu; Hongwanjun Zhang; Junxin Wei; Tao Wan; Yajie Liu; Wen Xu; Qingqing Yang; Jingtao Qu; Yuanyuan Zhang; Wanchen Li; Yanli Lu; Fengling Fu; Haoqiang Yu
• Keywords: Drought Tolerance

SUMMARY BES1/BZR1, a kind of plant‐specific transcription factor (TF), has been reported to regulate growth, development, and stress response. However, the maize BES1/BZR1 members are still largely unknown. In this study, we investigated function regulatory mechanism ZmBES1/BZR1‐4 in regulating drought response seed development. The was localized nucleus depending on its bHLH domain showed no self‐transactivation activity. level induced by predominantly higher seeds 25 days after pollination. Overexpression reduced tolerance but produced bigger with weight transgenic Arabidopsis, rice, maize. Inversely, mutant Mu4‐1 Mu4‐2 enhancement decreased size weight. could directly bind E‐box elements ZmMBP1 ZmPum6 promoters activate their transcription. Furthermore, interaction between ZmTLP5 enhanced Moreover, positively regulated weight, negatively tolerance. Therefore, our findings reveal that recruits development , which contributes uncovering BES1/BZR1s crops.