Expression patterns of the ZmASR family during simulated drought stress in maize

Abstract Maize ( Zea mays L.) is an important food crop. Maize production is adversely affected by abiotic stress, especially drought stress. The screening and characterization of the roles of stress‐related genes in maize are thus essential for improving abiotic stress resistance. Abscisic acid‐stress‐ripening (ASR)‐induced proteins with abscisic acid/water deficit stress (ABA/WDS) domains are a class of plant‐specific transcription factors that play an important role in plant development, growth, and abiotic stress responses. In this study, nine members of the ASR‐induced protein in maize ( ZmASR ) family were predicted and analyzed in maize in terms of gene structure, subcellular localization, amino acid sequence, physical and chemical properties, secondary structure, tertiary structure, and phosphorylation modification sites by bioinformatics. Analysis of regulatory promoter elements was performed to provide additional information about their distinctive tissue‐specific expression and possible functions. To further investigate the function of these proteins in maize, the expression levels of ZmASRs in different tissues and in response to different drought stress treatments were analyzed using quantitative real‐time polymerase chain reaction (qRT‐PCR). The results showed that the nine members of the maize ZmASR family have very different expression levels in different organs and under different degrees of drought stress. Moreover, the expression levels of the nine members in the same organ also varied greatly with leaf age. These findings provide a reference for functional research of the maize ZmASR gene family. Our findings have important theoretical and practical significance for cultivating new drought‐resistant maize varieties and promoting the development of the maize industry.