Maize is an important crop with a high level of genome diversity and heterosis. The genome sequence of a typical female line, B73, was previously released. Here, we report a de novo genome assembly of a corresponding male representative line, Mo17. More than 96.4% of the 2,183 Mb assembled genome can be accounted for by 362 scaffolds in ten pseudochromosomes with 38,620 annotated protein-coding genes. Comparative analysis revealed large gene-order and gene structural variations: approximately 10% of the annotated genes were mutually nonsyntenic, and more than 20% of the predicted genes had either large-effect mutations or large structural variations, which might cause considerable protein divergence between the two inbred lines. Our study provides a high-quality reference-genome sequence of an important maize germplasm, and the intraspecific gene order and gene structural variations identified should have implications for heterosis and genome evolution.

Summary: Soil salinity is one of several major abiotic stresses that constrain maize productivity worldwide. An improved understanding of salt‐tolerance mechanisms will thus enhance the breeding of salt‐tolerant maize and boost productivity. Previous studies have indicated that the maintenance of leaf Na⁺ concentration is essential for maize salt tolerance, and the difference in leaf Na⁺ exclusion has previously been associated with variation in salt tolerance between maize varieties. Here, we report the identification and functional characterization of a maize salt‐tolerance quantitative trait locus (QTL), Zea mays Na⁺ Content1 (ZmNC1), which encodes an HKT‐type transporter (designated as ZmHKT1). We show that a natural ZmHKT1 loss‐of‐function allele containing a retrotransposon insertion confers increased accumulation of Na⁺ in leaves, and salt hypersensitivity. We next show that ZmHKT1 encodes a plasma membrane‐localized Na⁺‐selective transporter, and is preferentially expressed in root stele (including the parenchyma cells surrounding the xylem vessels). We also show that loss of ZmHKT1 function increases xylem sap Na⁺ concentration and causes increased root‐to‐shoot Na⁺ delivery, indicating that ZmHKT1 promotes leaf Na⁺ exclusion and salt tolerance by withdrawing Na⁺ from the xylem sap. We conclude that ZmHKT1 is a major salt‐tolerance QTL and identifies an important new gene target in breeding for improved maize salt tolerance.

Summary: Plants can respond to environmental changes with various mechanisms occurred at transcriptional and translational levels. Thus far, there have been relatively extensive understandings of stress responses of plants on transcriptional level, while little information is known about that on translational level. To uncover the landscape of translation in plants in response to drought stress, we performed the recently developed ribosome profiling assay with maize seedlings growing under normal and drought conditions. Comparative analysis of the ribosome profiling data and the RNA‐seq data showed that the fold changes of gene expression at transcriptional level were moderately correlated with that of translational level globally (R² = 0.69). However, less than half of the responsive genes were shared by transcription and translation under drought condition, suggesting that drought stress can introduce transcriptional and translational responses independently. We found that the translational efficiencies of 931 genes were changed significantly in response to drought stress. Further analysis revealed that the translational efficiencies of genes were highly influenced by their sequence features including GC content, length of coding sequences and normalized minimal free energy. In addition, we detected potential translation of 3063 upstream open reading frames (uORFs) on 2558 genes and these uORFs may affect the translational efficiency of downstream main open reading frames (ORFs). Our study indicates that plant can respond to drought stress with highly dynamic translational mechanism, that acting synergistically with that of transcription.

Broomcorn millet (Panicum miliaceum L.) has strong tolerance to abiotic stresses, and is probably one of the oldest crops, with its earliest cultivation that dated back to ca. ~10,000 years. We report here its genome assembly through a combination of PacBio sequencing, BioNano, and Hi-C (in vivo) mapping. The 18 super scaffolds cover ~95.6% of the estimated genome (~887.8 Mb). There are 63,671 protein-coding genes annotated in this tetraploid genome. About ~86.2% of the syntenic genes in foxtail millet have two homologous copies in broomcorn millet, indicating rare gene loss after tetraploidization in broomcorn millet. Phylogenetic analysis reveals that broomcorn millet and foxtail millet diverged around ~13.1 Million years ago (Mya), while the lineage specific tetraploidization of broomcorn millet may be happened within ~5.91 million years. The genome is not only beneficial for the genome assisted breeding of broomcorn millet, but also an important resource for other Panicum species.