Poly-γ-glutamic acid enhanced the drought resistance of maize by improving photosynthesis and affecting the rhizosphere microbial community

BMC Plant Biology

Shengkui Zhang¹  Xingwang Liu¹  Haizhen Ma¹  Xiaohan Wang¹  Can Li¹  Panpan Li¹  Xia Tao¹ 

[1] State Key Laboratory of Biobased Material and Green Papermaking, Qilu University of Technology (Shandong Academy of Sciences), 250353, Jinan, Shandong, People’s Republic of China;School of Bioengineering, Qilu University of Technology (Shandong Academy of Sciences), 250353, Jinan, Shandong, People’s Republic of China;

关键词: γ-PGA;    Zea mays;    Drought resistance;    RNAseq;    Rhizosphere microbial communities;    Plant growth promoting bacteria;   

DOI  :  10.1186/s12870-021-03392-w

来源: Springer

【 摘 要 】

BackgroundCompared with other abiotic stresses, drought stress causes serious crop yield reductions. Poly-γ-glutamic acid (γ-PGA), as an environmentally friendly biomacromolecule, plays an important role in plant growth and regulation.ResultsIn this project, the effect of exogenous application of γ-PGA on drought tolerance of maize (Zea mays. L) and its mechanism were studied. Drought dramatically inhibited the growth and development of maize, but the exogenous application of γ-PGA significantly increased the dry weight of maize, the contents of ABA, soluble sugar, proline, and chlorophyll, and the photosynthetic rate under severe drought stress. RNA-seq data showed that γ-PGA may enhance drought resistance in maize by affecting the expression of ABA biosynthesis, signal transduction, and photosynthesis-related genes and other stress-responsive genes, which was also confirmed by RT–PCR and promoter motif analysis. In addition, diversity and structure analysis of the rhizosphere soil bacterial community demonstrated that γ-PGA enriched plant growth promoting bacteria such as Actinobacteria, Chloroflexi, Firmicutes, Alphaproteobacteria and Deltaproteobacteria. Moreover, γ-PGA significantly improved root development, urease activity and the ABA contents of maize rhizospheric soil under drought stress. This study emphasized the possibility of using γ-PGA to improve crop drought resistance and the soil environment under drought conditions and revealed its preliminary mechanism.ConclusionsExogenous application of poly-γ-glutamic acid could significantly enhance the drought resistance of maize by improving photosynthesis, and root development and affecting the rhizosphere microbial community.

【 授权许可】

CC BY