Molecular Mechanism of ZmHSFA2d Regulating Maize's Response to Heat Shock Stress

Corn, as an important food crop and industrial raw material in China, has a very wide planting area. With the intensification of the greenhouse effect, extreme high temperatures in summer have had a serious impact on the growth, development, yield, and quality of corn; Especially in southern China, corn seeds sown in summer and autumn are susceptible to high temperature stress during germination and seedling growth, leading to a serious decrease in field emergence rate and thus affecting yield per mu. Heat shock transcription factors (HSFs) are key regulatory factors for plant tolerance to high temperature stress. But the function in maize heat stress has not been systematically studied yet. Based on transcriptome data, we found that the ZmHSFA2d gene strongly responds to heat stress.