Expression analysis of maize WRKY transcription factor genes under abiotic stress

WRKY proteins are large family of plant-specific transcription factors（ TFs），play essential roles in regulating plant responses to pathogens and abiotic stress. In this study，we identified three WRKY transcription factor（ TF） genes（ ZmWRKY14-like，ZmWRKY25-like，ZmWRKY62-like） in maize by using bioinformatics method. Plant-mPLoc predicted that these three proteins were all localized in nucleus. Real-time qPCR assay showed that ZmWRKY14-like，ZmWRKY25-like，ZmWRKY62-like expressed in all tested maize tissues，but had differential expression. The expression levels of ZmWRKY14-like and ZmWRKY62-like in young fruit were significantly higher than those in other tissues，while the expression level of ZmWRKY25-like gene in leaf， spike and young fruit was higher than that in other tissues. The expression levels of three genes under different abiotic stress were also analyzed by real-time qPCR. The expression of ZmWRKY25-like was up-regulated，while ZmWRKY62-like was down-regulated under salt stress. The expression of ZmWRKY62-like was down-regulated under drought stress. Under low temperature stress，the expression level of ZmWRKY25-like was up-regulated. These results indicated that ZmWRKY25-like may be involved into plant response to salt and low temperature stress，and ZmWRKY62-like may be involved into plant response to drought and salt stress.