Identification of Fatty Acid Desaturases in Maize and Their Differential Responses to Low and High Temperature

Plant fatty acid desaturases (FADs) catalyze the desaturation of fatty acids in various forms and play important roles in regulating fatty acid composition and maintaining membrane fluidity under temperature stress. A total of 30 FADs were identified from a maize genome, including 13 soluble and 17 membrane-bound FADs, which were further classified into two and five sub-groups, respectively, via phylogenetic analysis. Although there is no evolutionary relationship between the soluble and the membrane-bound FADs, they all harbor a highly conserved FA_desaturase domain, and the types and the distributions of conserved motifs are similar within each sub-group. The transcriptome analysis revealed that genes encoding FADs exhibited different expression profiles under cold and heat stresses. The expression of ZmFAD2.1&2.2, ZmFAD7, and ZmSLD1&3 were significantly up-regulated under cold stress; moreover, the expression of ZmFAD2.1&2.3 and ZmSLD1&3 were obviously down-regulated under heat stress. The co-expression analysis demonstrated close correlation among the transcription factors and the significant responsive FAD genes under cold or heat stress. This study helps to understand the roles of plant FADs in temperature stress responses.