Single-cell transcriptomes reveal spatiotemporal heat stress response in maize roots

Plant roots perceive heat stress (HS) and adapt their architecture accordingly, which in turn influence the yield in crops. Investigating their heterogeneity and cell type-specific response to HS is essential for improving crop resilience. Here, we generate single-cell transcriptional landscape of maize (Zea mays) roots in response to HS. We characterize 15 cell clusters corresponding to 9 major cell types and identify cortex as the main root cell type responsive to HS with the most differentially expressed genes and its trajectory being preferentially affected upon HS. We find that cortex size strongly correlated with heat tolerance that is experimentally validated by using inbred lines and genetic mutation…

• BA
  Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation

  Award: 2022YFAG1002
• NN
  National Natural Science Foundation of China

  Awards: 2023ZD04076, 202403, 32261143757
• CA
  Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences

  Award: CAAS-CSCB-202403
• NS
  National Science and Technology Major Project

  Awards: 2023ZD04076, 2023ZD04071, 2022ZD0115703
• AS
  Agricultural Science and Technology Innovation Program

  Award: 2023ZD04076