GENOME-WIDE IDENTIFICATION AND EXPRESSION PATTERN ANALYSIS OF DHN FAMILY GENES IN MAIZE

Plant dehydrin (DHN) is a hydrophilic protein widely present in organisms, and it is accumulated when plants encounter adverse environments. Based on the sequence information of DHN family genes in Arabidopsis thaliana, 13 DHN genes were found in maize using the homology sequence alignment method, in which five DHN genes were located on chromosome 8. The maize DHN gene family can be classified into five branches by evolutionary analysis. The DHN proteins contain five subclasses which are K-n, SKn, KnS, YnSK(n) and FSKn. Analysis of cis-acting elements showed that the promoters of DHN gene family harbor cis-acting elements mainly responsive to stress and plant hormones. Tissue expression patterns revealed that almost all ZmDHN genes are expressed in the embryo and aleurone layer. DHN proteins were mainly distributed in the nucleus and cytoplasm by subcellular localization prediction. The present findings allow insight into understanding maize DHN family genes' functions and facilitate the molecular breeding of ZmDHNs in coping with abiotic stress.