Yongmeng Gao , Jun Xie , Xiaoduo Lu , Haiyan Li

National Engineering Laboratory of Crop Stress Resistance, School of Life Science, Anhui Agricultural University, Hefei, 230036, China
Author    Correspondence author
Molecular Plant Breeding, 2023, Vol. 14, No. 16   doi: 10.5376/mpb.2023.14.0016
Received: 07 Jun., 2023    Accepted: 19 Jul., 2023    Published: 04 Aug., 2023

This is an open access article published under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Plant secondary cell wall (SCW) provides physical support for upright growth and the transportation of water and nutrients. In our previous report, we characterized ZmIQD27, an SCW development-related protein, colocalized with microtubules and its loss of function would result in upward water-transportation failure. While the molecular mechanism of how ZmIQD27 mediates microtubular arrangement was not addressed. In this paper, a ZmCaM-ZmIQD27-ZmKLCR cascade was identified in maize. Interactions between ZmIQD27 and ZmCaMs and ZmKLCRs were verified in vivo and in vitro. ZmIQD27 motif that is responsible for binding CaMs and KLCRs was characterized. A proposed model of ZmIQD27 acts as a scaffold protein that senses signals and mediates the SCW transportation on microtubules guided by kinesin, was proposed. Our results would be essential for enriching the molecular network of how ZmIQD27 modulates secondary cell wall development, which would finally help in marker-assisted maize breeding.

Secondary cell wall; ZmIQD27; ZmCaM; ZmKLCR; Interaction