SnRK2.6 associates with sucrose transporter 1 to positively regulate leaf senescence process in maize

Elongation of plant stay-green is a beneficial strategy to improve source-sink remobilization, thereby enhancing cereal yield and nutrient quality. However, the potential candidate targets and functional mechanism details are largely elusive, posing a great challenge to achieve the stay-green plants. Here, we characterized a leaf premature senescence (les) mutant, representing a premature termination in the protein kinase SnRK2.6. To elucidate the in-depth mechanism of SnRK2.6 controlling senescence process, we performed transcriptome deep sequencing (RNA-seq) analysis using the les leaves and corresponding wild type at 74 DAG, wherein the les leaves exhibited senescence trait and wild-type leaves were green.