Aldehyde dehydrogenase protein superfamily in maize

Maize (Zea mays ssp. mays L.) is an important model organism for fundamental research in the agro-biotechnology field. Aldehydes were generated in response to a suite of environmental stresses that perturb metabolism including salinity, dehydration, desiccation, and cold and heat shock. Many biologically important aldehydes are metabolized by the superfamily of NAD(P)(+)-dependent aldehyde dehydrogenases. Here, starting from the database of Z. mays, we identified 28 aldehyde dehydrogenase (ALDH) genes and 48 transcripts by the in silico cloning method using the ALDH-conserved domain amino acid sequence of Arabidopsis and rice as a probe. Phylogenetic analysis shows that all 28 members of the ALDH gene families were classified to ten distinct subfamilies. Microarray data and quantitative real-time PCR analysis reveal that ZmALDH9, ZmALDH13, and ZmALDH17 genes involve the function of drought stress, acid tolerance, and pathogens infection. These results suggested that these three ZmALDH genes might be potentially useful in maize genetic improvement.