Morphological and Proteomic Evaluation of Zea Mays in Response to Osmotic Stress

Abstract

Drought is the main abiotic stress responsible for crop loss worldwide. Maize (Zea mays L.) is a widely grown drought-sensitive crop used as a staple food by the growing population. Therefore, it is imperative to assess the molecular mechanisms behind drought response and tolerance in maize. Transcriptomic profiling of abiotic stress responsive pathways in various crops appeared to be an unreliable approach due to posttranscriptional modifications, while there is limited published data on molecular mechanisms of osmotic-stress response in maize. Hence our study aimed at profiling osmotic stress responsive proteins augmented by their associated morphological features in Z. mays.