title: Overexpression of Vitreoscilla hemoglobin increases waterlogging tolerance in Arabidopsis and maize.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Vitreoscilla hemoglobin (VHb) is a type of hemoglobin found in the Gram-negative aerobic bacterium Vitreoscilla that has been shown to contribute to the tolerance of anaerobic stress in multiple plant species. Maize (Zea mays L.) is susceptible to waterlogging, causing significant yield loss. In this study, we approached this problem with the introduction of an exogenous VHb gene.
  
  
  RESULTS
  We overexpressed the VHb gene in Arabidopsis and maize under the control of the CaMV35S promoter. After 14 days of waterlogging treatment, the transgenic VHb Arabidopsis plants remained green, while the controls died. Under waterlogging, important plant growth traits of VHb plants, including seedling height, primary root length, lateral root number, and shoot dry weight were significantly improved relative to those of the controls. The VHb gene was also introduced into a maize line through particle bombardment and was then transferred to two elite maize inbred lines through marker-assisted backcrossing. The introduction of VHb significantly enhanced plant growth under waterlogging stress on traits, including seedling height, primary root length, lateral root number, root dry weight, and shoot dry weight, in both Zheng58 and CML50 maize backgrounds. Under the waterlogging condition, transgenic VHb maize seedlings exhibited elevated expression of alcohol dehydrogenase (ADH1) and higher peroxidase (POD) enzyme activity. The two VHb-containing lines, Zheng58 (VHb) and CML50 (VHb), exhibited higher tolerance to waterlogging than their negative control lines (Zheng58 and CML50).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  These results demonstrate that the exogenous VHb gene confers waterlogging tolerance to the transgenic maize line. In Maize in the place of to the transgenic maize line, the VHb gene is a useful molecular tool for the improvement of waterlogging and submergence-tolerance.
authors.affiliation: Engineering research center of Ecology and Agricultural Use of wetland, Ministry of Education, Yangzte University, Jingzhou, 434025, P.R. China. duhewei666@163.com.|College of Life Science, Yangtze University, Jingzhou, Hubei, 434025, P.R. China. duhewei666@163.com.|Hubei Collaborative Innovation Center for Grain Crops, Yangtze University, Jingzhou, 434025, P.R. China. duhewei666@163.com.
authors.forename: Hewei
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Du
authors.affiliation: National Key Laboratory of Crop Genetic Improvement, Huazhong Agricultural University, Wuhan, 430070, P.R. China. sxm891114@qq.com.
authors.forename: Xiaomeng
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Shen
authors.affiliation: Food Crops Institute, Hubei Academy of Agriculture Sciences, Wuhan, 430064, P.R. China. hyqhzau@163.com.
authors.forename: Yiqin
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Huang
authors.affiliation: College of Life Science, Yangtze University, Jingzhou, Hubei, 434025, P.R. China. huangmin666@sohu.com.
authors.forename: Min
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Huang
authors.affiliation: National Key Laboratory of Crop Genetic Improvement, Huazhong Agricultural University, Wuhan, 430070, P.R. China. zuxinzhang@mail.hzau.edu.cn.|Hubei Collaborative Innovation Center for Grain Crops, Yangtze University, Jingzhou, 434025, P.R. China. zuxinzhang@mail.hzau.edu.cn.
authors.forename: Zuxin
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Zhang
mesh_terms: D000222:Adaptation, Physiological / Q000235:genetics; D015308:Anaerobic Threshold; D017360:Arabidopsis / Q000235:genetics* / Q000502:physiology; D001426:Bacterial Proteins / Q000235:genetics*; D005798:Genes, Bacterial; D030821:Plants, Genetically Modified; D054793:Truncated Hemoglobins / Q000235:genetics*; D020589:Vitreoscilla / Q000235:genetics*; D014867:Water; D003313:Zea mays / Q000235:genetics* / Q000502:physiology
chemical_list: D001426:Bacterial Proteins; D054793:Truncated Hemoglobins; D014867:Water; C082613:hemoglobin protein, Vitreoscilla
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