{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,9,18]],"date-time":"2026-09-18T05:04:43Z","timestamp":1789707883266,"version":"4.0.1"},"reference-count":61,"publisher":"Frontiers Media SA","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2026,9,18]],"date-time":"2026-09-18T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1789689600000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"funder":[{"DOI":"10.13039\/501100001809","name":"National Natural Science Foundation of China","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","award":["31960431"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["31960431"]}],"id":[{"id":"10.13039\/501100001809","id-type":"DOI","asserted-by":"publisher"}]},{"DOI":"10.13039\/501100009620","name":"Science and Technology Department of Gansu Province","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","award":["25JRRA411"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["25JRRA411"]}],"id":[{"id":"10.13039\/501100009620","id-type":"DOI","asserted-by":"publisher"}]}],"content-domain":{"domain":["frontiersin.org"],"crossmark-restriction":true},"short-container-title":["Front. Plant Sci."],"abstract":"<jats:p>\n                    Drought stress severely constrains global maize productivity. Although ethylene (ETH)-responsive transcription factors play key roles in plant stress adaptation, the functional mechanism of\n                    <jats:italic>ZmEIL2<\/jats:italic>\n                    in drought tolerance remains poorly understood. Here, transgenic maize lines with\n                    <jats:italic>ZmEIL2<\/jats:italic>\n                    overexpressing (OE) and\n                    <jats:italic>ZmEIL2<\/jats:italic>\n                    knockout (KO) were generated and subjected to progressive drought stress followed by rehydration. Phenotypic analysis indicated that\n                    <jats:italic>ZmEIL2<\/jats:italic>\n                    OE lines exhibited improved plant survival and reduced leaf water loss, while KO lines exhibited displayed enhanced drought sensitivity. Physiological assessments demonstrated that\n                    <jats:italic>ZmEIL2<\/jats:italic>\n                    preserves leaf relative water content by regulating stomatal movement and mitigates drought-induced membrane damage and lipid peroxidation, which correlated with increased proline (Pro) accumulation. Furthermore,\n                    <jats:italic>ZmEIL2<\/jats:italic>\n                    modulated endogenous ETH and abscisic acid (ABA) levels under drought stress and enhanced the antioxidant defense system by increasing the activities of superoxide dismutase (SOD), peroxidase (POD) and ascorbate peroxidase (APX), thereby diminishing reactive oxygen species (ROS) accumulation, as evidenced by 3,3\u2019-diaminobenzidine (DAB) and nitro blue tetrazolium (NBT) staining. We performed RNA sequencing (RNA-seq)on wild-type (WT), OE, and KO plants sampled at 0, 10, and 13 days of drought treatment and identified 120 core drought-responsive genes involved in stress perception, oxidoreductase activity, and metabolic reprogramming. Notably, 11 candidate genes, including\n                    <jats:italic>ZmSOD16<\/jats:italic>\n                    ,\n                    <jats:italic>ZmPAL7<\/jats:italic>\n                    ,\n                    <jats:italic>ZmHSP101<\/jats:italic>\n                    ,\n                    <jats:italic>ZmHSP70<\/jats:italic>\n                    ,\n                    <jats:italic>ZmGA2ox3<\/jats:italic>\n                    , and\n                    <jats:italic>ZmSMT1<\/jats:italic>\n                    , exhibited strictly opposite expression trends between OE and KO under normal conditions, suggesting their roles in antioxidant defense, protein protection, and hormone and carbohydrate metabolism. Collectively, these results demonstrate that\n                    <jats:italic>ZmEIL2<\/jats:italic>\n                    as a positive regulator of drought tolerance in maize via a multi-layered regulatory mechanism encompassing stomatal regulation, hormonal balance, membrane integrity, osmotic adjustment, and ROS scavenging. This work provides valuable candidate genes for the breeding of drought-resilient maize varieties.\n                  <\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3389\/fpls.2026.1946405","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2026,9,18]],"date-time":"2026-09-18T04:37:35Z","timestamp":1789706255000},"update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3389\/crossmark-policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":0,"title":["ZmEIL2 positively regulates drought tolerance in maize by modulating stomatal movement, hormonal homeostasis, and antioxidant defense"],"prefix":"10.3389","volume":"17","author":[{"given":"Yue","family":"Li","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Institute of Crop, Gansu Academy of Agricultural Sciences\/Key Laboratory of Crop Gene Resources and Germplasm Innovation in Northwest Cold and Arid Regions (Co-construction by Ministry and Province), Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs","place":["Lanzhou, China"]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Yanjun","family":"Zhang","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Institute of Crop, Gansu Academy of Agricultural Sciences\/Key Laboratory of Crop Gene Resources and Germplasm Innovation in Northwest Cold and Arid Regions (Co-construction by Ministry and Province), Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs","place":["Lanzhou, China"]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Xusheng","family":"Qi","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Institute of Crop, Gansu Academy of Agricultural Sciences\/Key Laboratory of Crop Gene Resources and Germplasm Innovation in Northwest Cold and Arid Regions (Co-construction by Ministry and Province), Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs","place":["Lanzhou, China"]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Zuowang","family":"Gou","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Institute of Crop, Gansu Academy of Agricultural Sciences\/Key Laboratory of Crop Gene Resources and Germplasm Innovation in Northwest Cold and Arid Regions (Co-construction by Ministry and Province), Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs","place":["Lanzhou, China"]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Hongmei","family":"Wang","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Institute of Crop, Gansu Academy of Agricultural Sciences\/Key Laboratory of Crop Gene Resources and Germplasm Innovation in Northwest Cold and Arid Regions (Co-construction by Ministry and Province), Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs","place":["Lanzhou, China"]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Xianfeng","family":"Yang","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Institute of Crop, Gansu Academy of Agricultural Sciences\/Key Laboratory of Crop Gene Resources and Germplasm Innovation in Northwest Cold and Arid Regions (Co-construction by Ministry and Province), Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs","place":["Lanzhou, China"]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Jingfu","family":"Ma","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Institute of Crop, Gansu Academy of Agricultural Sciences\/Key Laboratory of Crop Gene Resources and Germplasm Innovation in Northwest Cold and Arid Regions (Co-construction by Ministry and Province), Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs","place":["Lanzhou, China"]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Xingrong","family":"Wang","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Institute of Crop, Gansu Academy of Agricultural Sciences\/Key Laboratory of Crop Gene Resources and Germplasm Innovation in Northwest Cold and Arid Regions (Co-construction by Ministry and Province), Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs","place":["Lanzhou, China"]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"1965","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2026,9,18]]},"reference":[{"key":"B1","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"12","DOI":"10.1016\/j.envexpbot.2018.06.019","article-title":"Genetic identification and expression profiling of drought responsive genes in sorghum","volume":"155","author":"Abou-Elwafa","year":"2018","journal-title":"Environ. 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