Analysis of differentially methylated regions of genomic DNA in maize (Zea mays L.) exposed to salt stress

ABSTRACT

Through the analysis of DNA methylation in a maize inbred line under salt stress, we investigated the molecular mechanism of salt tolerance in maize. The methylation sensitive amplification polymorphism (MSAP) combined with capillary electrophoresis was applied to detect DNA methylation, and some differentially methylated DNA sequences were cloned and analyzed to discover interesting genes which might contribute to maize salt tolerance. The maize inbred line LH196 experienced extensive DNA methylation variations, including hypo- and hyper-methylation and changes of DNA methylation types. Cloning, sequencing and real-time quantitative PCR tests found that a variety of related genes play important roles in maize salt tolerance.

KEYWORDS:

• Maize
• salt stress
• MSAP
• capillary electrophoresis

Acknowledgments

This work was supported by the Key Research and Development Project of Jiangsu Province, China (Modern Agriculture, BE2017365), the State Key Laboratory of Crop Biology (Shandong Agricultural University) Open Fund (No. 2016KF02), and the Practice Innovation Training Program Projects for College Students.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the State Key Laboratory of Crop Biology (Shandong Agricultural University) Open Fund [number 2016KF02]; the Key Research and Development Project of Jiangsu Province, China (Modern Agriculture) [BE2017365].