{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,7,30]],"date-time":"2026-07-30T18:36:53Z","timestamp":1785436613251,"version":"3.56.0"},"reference-count":50,"publisher":"MDPI AG","issue":"13","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2026,6,26]],"date-time":"2026-06-26T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1782432000000},"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":["32401423"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["32401423"]}],"id":[{"id":"10.13039\/501100001809","id-type":"DOI","asserted-by":"publisher"}]},{"award":["32401423"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["32401423"]}],"id":[{"id":"https:\/\/ror.org\/01h0zpd94","id-type":"ROR","asserted-by":"publisher"}]},{"name":"Weifang Science and Technology Development Plan (Soft Science) Project","award":["2025RKX018"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["2025RKX018"]}]}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["Plants"],"abstract":"<jats:p>Regionally, compound agroecological stress arising from both natural and anthropogenic emergy inputs may influence maize transcriptomic responses; however, evidence across multiple scales remains limited. We developed a reproducible five-step framework integrating a macro-level compound stress index, molecular response modules, cross-scale coupling, spatial continuity, and independent field validation. Nine variables (emergy indicators ELR, Fn, and NEYR; climate; soil; and terrain) were PCA-weighted into a Composite Abiotic Stress Intensity Index (CASI; first three PCs = 83.7%; and prefecture-level Moran\u2019s I = 0.463). Across 15 public RNA-seq datasets (286 samples), WGCNA identified five separable modules (drought\u2013heat, reproductive stage heat, low nitrogen\/phosphorus, osmotic salt, and chronic compound), 270 core genes, and four cross-module hubs (ZmDREB2A, ZmHSFA2, ZmWRKY33, and ZmNRT2.1). With n = 21, the sCCA (r1 = 0.81, permutation p = 0.003; LOO-CV r = 0.71), random forest, and spatial error model all confirmed coupling between ELR and the drought\u2013heat module (\u03b2 = 0.51, p = 0.008). PLS-DA four-zone partitioning (Q2 = 0.548) and a county-level second-order trend surface (R2 = 0.67) verified spatial continuity. GSVA on five independent field RNA-seq datasets yielded 74.4 to 82.8% core gene directional consistency and Cliff\u2019s \u03b4 of 0.59 to 0.68 (large effect), avoiding circular reasoning. The framework enables molecular analysis for precision agriculture and climate-resilient breeding.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3390\/plants15131977","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2026,6,29]],"date-time":"2026-06-29T02:16:44Z","timestamp":1782699404000},"page":"1977","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/mdpi_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":0,"title":["Co-Expression Modules and Core Regulatory Factors Linked to Maize Abiotic Stress Resistance Under the Compound Agroecological Stress Index in Southwest China"],"prefix":"10.3390","volume":"15","author":[{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0003-3219-4359","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Yuejuan","family":"Yang","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"College of Advanced Agriculture and Life Sciences, Weifang University, Weifang 261061, China"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Hao","family":"Zhang","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"College of Advanced Agriculture and Life Sciences, Weifang University, Weifang 261061, China"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Long","family":"Wang","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"College of Advanced Agriculture and Life Sciences, Weifang University, Weifang 261061, China"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Jinsheng","family":"Li","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"College of Resources and Environment, Anhui Agricultural University, Hefei 230036, China"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Jiahui","family":"Liu","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"College of Life Sciences, Shandong Normal University, Jinan 250358, China"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Yang","family":"Liu","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"College of Advanced Agriculture and Life Sciences, Weifang University, Weifang 261061, China"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Hanqi","family":"Shen","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"College of Advanced Agriculture and Life Sciences, Weifang University, Weifang 261061, China"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0009-0009-8858-535X","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Zhengqi","family":"Yin","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Environmental Engineering, School of Architecture and Environment, Sichuan University, Chengdu 610042, China"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"1968","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2026,6,26]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref_1","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"616","DOI":"10.1126\/science.1204531","article-title":"Climate Trends and Global Crop Production Since 1980","volume":"333","author":"Lobell","year":"2011","journal-title":"Science"},{"key":"ref_2","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"6644","DOI":"10.1073\/pnas.1718031115","article-title":"Future warming increases probability of globally synchronized maize production shocks","volume":"115","author":"Tigchelaar","year":"2018","journal-title":"Proc. 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