Heterologous expression of ZmNF-YA12 confers tolerance to drought and salt stress in Arabidopsis

Drought and salinity are serious environmental factors limiting the growth and productivity of plants worldwide. Therefore, it is necessary to develop ways to improve drought and salinity stress tolerance in plants. In this study, a drought-responsive nuclear factor Y subunit A gene, ZmNF-YA12, was cloned from maize. qPCR revealed ZmNF-YA12 transcript in all vegetative and reproductive tissues, with higher levels in young roots. Expression analyses of maize revealed that ZmNF-YA12 was induced by abscisic acid (ABA), jasmonic acid (JA), and abiotic stresses, including dehydration, high salinity, cold, and polyethylene glycol (PEG) treatment. The heterologous expression of ZmNF-YA12 in Arabidopsis plants resulted in increased root length and better plant growth than in wild-type (WT) plants under conditions of mannitol, salt, and JA stress on 1/2 MS medium. Transgenic Arabidopsis showed improved tolerance to drought and salt stresses in soil, and higher proline content and lower malondialdehyde (MDA) content than WT controls. The transgenic plants also maintained higher peroxidase (POD) activities than WT plants under conditions of NaCl stress. A yeast two-hybrid experiment demonstrated that ZmNF-YA12 interacted with ZmNF-YC1 and ZmNF-YC15. Moreover, the transcript levels of stress-responsive genes (RD29A, RD29B, RAB18, and RD22) were markedly increased in transgenic lines under conditions of drought and salt stress. These observations suggested that the ZmNF-YA12 gene may confers drought and salt stress tolerance by regulating stress-related genes or interacting with ZmNF-YC1 and ZmNF-YC15, and has potential applications in molecular breeding with maintenance of production under conditions of stress.