Wei Wang

Henan Agricultural University

As a typical C4 plant and important crop worldwide, maize is susceptible to drought. In maize, transitory starch (TS) turnover occurs in the vascular bundle sheath of leaves, differing from that in Arabidopsis (a C3 plant). This process, particularly its role in drought tolerance and the key starch-hydrolyzing enzymes involved, is not fully underst...

Hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) is a prevalent reactive oxygen species (ROS) found in cells and takes a central role in plant development and stress adaptation. The root apical meristem (RAM) has evolved strong plasticity to adapt to complex and changing environmental conditions. Recent advances have made great progress in explaining the mechanism of key...

Drought-induced osmotic stress severely affects the growth and yield of maize. However, the mechanisms underlying the different responses of young and old maize leaves to osmotic stress remain unclear. To gain a systematic understanding of age-related stress responses, we compared osmotic-stress-induced changes in maize leaves of different ages usi...

Main conclusion ZmCBL8-1 enhances salt stress tolerance in maize by improving the antioxidant system to neutralize ROS homeostasis and inducing Na⁺/H⁺ antiporter gene expressions of leaves. Abstract Calcineurin B-like proteins (CBLs) as plant-specific calcium sensors have been explored for their roles in the regulation of abiotic stress tolerance....

Cadmium (Cd) is a major environmental pollutant and poses a risk of transfer into the food chain through contaminated plants. Mechanisms underlying Cd tolerance and hyperaccumulation in plants are not fully understood. Proteomics-based approaches facilitate an in-depth understanding of plant responses to Cd stress at the systemic level by identifyi...

15 Calcineurin B-like proteins (CBLs) as specific calcium sensors that interact with 16 CBL-interacting protein kinases (CIPKs) play a key role in the regulation of plant 17 development and abiotic stress tolerance. In this study, we isolated and characterized 18 the CIPK32 protein from Zea mays. ZmCIPK32 showed that it comprised 440 amino 19 acids...

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...

Citation: Liu, H.; Song, S.; Liu, M.; Mu, Y.; Li, Y.; Xuan, Y.; Niu, L.; Zhang, H.; Wang, W. Transcription Factor ZmNAC20 Improves Drought Resistance by Promoting Stomatal Closure and Activating Expression of Abstract: Drought is a major environmental threat that limits crop growth, development, and productivity worldwide. Improving drought resista...

Maize accumulates large amounts of starch in seeds which have been used as food for human and animals. Maize starch is an importantly industrial raw material for bioethanol production. One critical step in bioethanol production is degrading starch to oligosaccharides and glucose by α-amylase and glucoamylase. This step usually requires high tempera...

The calcium ion (Ca2+), as a well-known second messenger, plays an important role in multiple processes of growth, development, and stress adaptation in plants. As central Ca2+ sensor proteins and a multifunctional kinase family, calcium-dependent protein kinases (CDPKs) are widely present in plants. In maize, the signal transduction processes invo...

Drought is a global threat that affects agricultural production. Plants have evolved several adaptive strategies to cope with drought. Stomata are essential structures for plants to control water status and photosynthesis rate. Stomatal closure is an efficient way for plants to reduce water loss and improve survivability under drought conditions. T...

Male and female gametophyte development, double fertilization, and embryogenesis are key to alternating generations in angiosperms. The female gametophyte of Arabidopsis is an eight-nucleate haploid structure developed from functional megaspores (FMs) through three flawless mitoses regulated by a series of cell cycle genes. Cytokinin, an important...

Background Currently, mechanical maize kernel harvesting has not been fully utilized in developing countries including China, partly due to the absence of suitable cultivars capable of rapid desiccation during seed maturation. The initiation of rapid desiccation during seed maturation is regulated by abscisic acid (ABA). For further characterizatio...

Background: Various environmental factors are capable of oxidative stress to result in limiting plant development and agricultural production. Fullerene-based carbon nanomaterials can enable radical scavenging and positively regulate plant growth. Even so, to date, our knowledge about the mechanism of fullerene-based carbon anomaterials on plant gr...

Cysteine proteases, belonging to the C1-papain family, play a major role in plant growth and development, senescence, and immunity. There is evidence to suggest that pollen cysteine protease (CP) (ZmCP03) is involved in regulating the anther development and pollen formation in maize. However, there is no report on the genome-wide identification and...

Since Charles Darwin discovered growth movements of the shoot tip (coleoptile) towards light, the grass coleoptiles have long been used as a model system to study plant growth. Rapid growth of the coleoptile is vital for successful seed germination and early seedling establishment. However, the proteome changes underlying the rapid growth of the co...

In plants, the cell fates of a vegetative cell (VC) and generative cell (GC) are determined after the asymmetric division of the haploid microspore. The VC exits the cell cycle and grows a pollen tube, while the GC undergoes further mitosis to produce two sperm cells for double fertilization. However, our understanding of the mechanisms underlying...

In the present study, the role of quaternary ammonium iminofullerenes (IFQA) on the root growth of plant seedlings was investigated. The root elongation of Arabidopsis and maize exposed to 20 and 50 mg/L of IFQA was promoted under normal and osmotic stress conditions, respectively. In the meantime, the root active absorption area and adenosine trip...

Plant peptides secreted as signal molecular to trigger cell-to-cell signaling are indispensable for plant growth and development. Successful sexual reproduction in plants requires extensive communication between male and female gametophytes, their gametes, and with the surrounding sporophytic tissues. In the past decade, it has been well-documented...

Pollen tube elongation is characterized by a highly-polarized tip growth process dependent on an efficient vesicular transport system and largely mobilized by actin cytoskeleton. Pollen tubes are an ideal model system to study exocytosis, endocytosis, membrane recycling, and signaling network coordinating cellular processes, structural organization...

Maize starch is an important agricultural commodity that serves as food, feed, and a raw material for industrial purposes. It is organized into starch granules (SG) inside amyloplasts and is highly accumulated in endosperms. Maize hybrids exhibit heterosis over their parents. However, the parental effect on the size of SG in F1 hybrid seeds remains...

As a vital component of plant cell walls, proteins play important roles in stress response by modifying the structure of cell walls and involving in the wall integrity signaling pathway. Recently, we have critically reviewed the predictors, databases, and cross-referencing of the subcellular locations of possible cell wall proteins (CWPs) in plants...

In plants, 3', 5'-cyclic adenosine monophosphate (cAMP) has been recognized as an important second messenger with varied functions. However, only a few adenylyl cyclases (ACs) synthesizing cAMP have been identified. Moreover, the biological roles of ACs/cAMP in response to stress remain largely unclear. Here, using the quantitative proteomics techn...

The GATA transcription factors are important transcriptional regulators of plant growth and responses to environmental stimuli. Here, a total of 25 CaGATA genes was identified in chickpea (Cicer arietinum), and their basic characteristics, including gene structure, duplication patterns, conserved domains and various physical and chemical parameters...

Background: Frequently occurring drought stress negatively affects the production of maize worldwide. Numerous efforts have been made to develop drought-tolerant maize lines and to explore drought tolerant mechanisms in maize. However, there is a lack of comparative studies on transcriptomic changes between drought-tolerant and control maize lines...

Drought is among the most important abiotic stressors influencing food-crop production worldwide. Currently, drought-tolerant maize materials are rarely used for actual breeding because corn production primarily focuses on heterosis to generate desired varieties. In this article, we reviewed current work on assessing maize drought tolerance. We sug...

As the vital component of plant cell wall, proteins play important roles in stress response through modifying wall structure and involving in wall integrity signaling. However, the potential of cell wall proteins (CWPs) in improvement of crop stress tolerance has probably been underestimated. Recently, we have critically reviewed the predictors, da...

Duckweed, a small floating aquatic plant in the family Lemnaceae, has considerable potential for agricultural and environmental applications. Proteomic analysis will facilitate the study of plant biology and plant-environment interactions. A reliable and reproducible protein extraction method is critical for successful proteomic analysis. To date,...

Maize (Zea mays L.) is one of the most important crops worldwide and is a model organism among cereal crops. Abiotic and biotic stresses are often present simultaneously and severely influence maize production, causing great yield losses worldwide. Therefore, the selection and cultivation of stress-tolerant maize lines that adapt to various stresse...

Background: The mesocotyl connects the coleoptilar node and the basal part of the seminal root of maize (Zea mays) seedling. The mesocotyl pushes the shoot of the seedling out of the soil during seed germination; thus, its growth is highly related to deep-sowing tolerance. Although many studies on the maize mesocotyl have been carried out at physio...

Zea nicaraguensis is a wild relative of Zea mays subsp. mays (maize) that has high waterlogging tolerance. One of its traits is constitutive aerenchyma formation (CAF) in roots and this may be one of the reasons for the tolerance, but it has not yet been proven by comparing plants that differ only in CAF in the same genetic background. We therefore...

In this paper, we investigated the relationship between hydrogen sulfide (H2S) and mitogen-activated protein kinase kinase (MEK1/2) in jasmonic acid (JA)-regulated the redox state of ascorbate in the leaves of Arabidopsis thaliana. The results showed that JA significantly enhanced the phosphorylation level of MEK1/2, the production of endogenous H2...

In plants, cells do not migrate. Tissues are frequently arranged in concentric rings, thus expansion of inner layers is coordinated with cell division and/or expansion of cells in outer layers. In Arabidopsis stems, receptor kinases, PXY and ER, genetically interact to coordinate vascular proliferation and organisation via inter-tissue signalling....

Seeds store lipids in the form of lipid bodies (LBs) for germination and early seedling growth. LBs can be easily isolated by the established floating-extraction method from oleaginous seeds containing a large quantity of LBs. Compared to oleagi-nous seeds, maize and other cereal seeds contain a small quantity of LBs, so it is difficult to isolate...

Our commentary regarding a study by Wang et al. (Nat. Commun. 2018; 9: 594), highlights the possibility of applying their virus-induced gene silencing–based technique to identify pattern recognition receptors in cereal crops. We also discuss the various mechanisms by which pattern recognition receptors might function.

[This corrects the article DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0202238.].

Comparison of 2DE protein profiles of maize leaf proteins extracted using two methods. Shown were three independent experiments. Left panel: the modified TCA/acetone precipitation. Right panel: the classical TCA/acetone precipitation. Spots with increased abundance are indicated in red. About 800 μg of proteins were resolved in pH 4–7 (linear) stri...

Comparison of 2DE protein profiles of maize embryo proteins extracted using two methods. Shown were two independent experiments. Left panel: the modified TCA/acetone precipitation. Right panel: the classical TCA/acetone precipitation. Spots with increased abundance are indicated in red. About 800 μg of proteins were resolved in pH 4–7 (linear) stri...

Comparison of 2DE protein profiles of maize root proteins extracted using two methods. Shown were three independent experiments. Left panel: the modified TCA/acetone precipitation. Right panel: the classical TCA/acetone precipitation. Spots with increased abundance are indicated in red. About 800 μg of proteins were resolved in pH 4–7 (linear) stri...

Protein extracts obtained from cells or tissues often require removal of interfering substances for the preparation of high-quality protein samples in proteomic analysis. A number of protein extraction methods have been applied to various biological samples. TCA/acetone precipitation and phenol extraction, a common method of protein extraction, is...

The cell wall is the most striking feature that distinguishes plant cells from animal cells. It plays an essential role in cell shape, stability, growth and protection. Despite being present in small amounts, cell wall proteins (CWPs) are crucial components of the cell wall. The cell wall proteome generally consists of sensu stricto CWPs, apoplast...

In nature, plants are routinely exposed to adverse environmental conditions, such as elevated temperature, drought, salinity, heavy metal, etc., which are among the main causes for declining crop productivity worldwide and lead to billions of dollars of annual losses (Dhankher and Foyer, 2018). These stressors negatively affect plant growth and dev...

Missing Proteins in Plant Proteomic Analysis Recently, technical advances, especially in liquid chromatography (LC) and mass spectrometry (MS), have improved the sensitivity, coverage, reliability, and throughput of proteome analysis (Boersema et al., 2015). Novel proteomics methods, such as targeted proteomics (Marx 2013), degradomics (Stoehr et a...

Maize is one of the most widely cultivated crops. It accumulates a large quantity of seed storage proteins, which are important for seed development and germination, and contribute to the nutritional quality of seeds. Based on solubility, the storage proteins are divided into albumins (water-soluble), globulins (salt-soluble), prolamins (alcohol-so...

2-DE profiles of SSPs in maize embryos of hybrids and their parents. Maize embryo SSPs (600 μg) were resolved by IEF using 11 cm pH 4–7 IPG dry Strip. Secondary SDS-PAGE was carried out on a 12.5% resolving gel. Spots of relatively abundant protein in hybrids and their parents with at least two-folds change in abundance are indicated with red arrow...

Specificity analysis of the antibody anti-GLB1 by 2-DE immunoblotting. Enriched GLB1 (500 μg) from maize embryo were resolved by IEF using 11 cm pH 4–7 IPG dry Strip. Secondary SDS-PAGE was carried out on a 12.5% gel. Corresponding region of the red box marked was used for blot analysis. Blot probed with anti-GLB1 (1:3,000 dilution).

http://journal.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/fchem.2017.00059/full

This study investigated the role of hydrogen sulfide (H2S) in the regulation of the ascorbate (AsA) and glutathione (GSH) metabolism by jasmonic acid (JA) in the leaves of Arabidopsis thaliana by using H2S scavenger hypotaurine (HT) and H2S synthetic mutant (SALK_041918, designated Atl-cdes). The results showed that JA significantly increased the H...

Enhancing Omics Research of Crop Responses to Drought under Field Conditions

Although seed vigor is a complex physiological trait controlled by quantitative trait loci, technological advances in the laboratory are being translated into applications for enhancing seed vigor in crop plants. In this article, we summarize and discuss pioneering work in the genetic modification of seed vigor, especially through the over-expressi...

Although seed vigor is a complex physiological trait controlled by quantitative trait loci, technological advances in the laboratory are being translated into applications for enhancing seed vigor in crop plants. In this article, we summarize and discuss pioneering work in the genetic modification of seed vigor, especially through the over-expressi...

2017) Genetic modification for improving seed vigor is transitioning from model plants to crop plants. Front. Plant Sci. 8:8. Abstract 15 Although seed vigor is a complex physiological trait controlled by quantitative trait loci, 16 technological advances in the laboratory are being translated into applications for enhancing 17 seed vigor in crop p...

The onion (Allium cepa L.) is widely planted worldwide as a valuable vegetable crop. The scales of an onion bulb are a modified type of leaf. The one-layer-cell epidermis of onion scales is commonly used as a model experimental material in botany and molecular biology. The lower epidermis (LE) and upper epidermis (UE) of onion scales display obviou...

MS/MS information of 47 identified protein spots. (RAR)

Drought stress is one of major factors resulting in maize yield loss. The roles of abscisic acid (ABA) have been widely studied in crops in response to drought stress. However, more attention is needed to identify key ABA-related proteins and also gain deeper molecular insights about drought stress in maize. Based on this need, the physiology and p...

Raw data Raw data 1: BestKeeper-Input; Raw data 2: Cp value; Raw data 3: geNorm-Input; Raw data 4: Mean Cp; Raw data 5: NormFinder-Input.

Map name of pathways induced by drought stress in maize vp5.

Indentified peptides for the first independent biological experiment.

Indentified peptides for the second independent biological experiment.

Maize proteins corresponding to rice proteins in the network of protein interaction in maize Vp5 seedlings under drought stress.

Map name of pathways induced by drought stress in maize Vp5.

Primers used in this study.

Indentified peptides for the third independent biological experiment.

At the eight-leaf stage, maize is highly sensitive to stresses such as drought, heat, and their combination, which greatly affect its yield. At present, few studies have analyzed maize response to combined drought and heat stress at the eight-leaf stage. In this study, we measured certain physical parameters of maize at the eight-leaf stage when it...