Waterlogging stress in maize is one of the emerging abiotic stresses in the current climate change scenario. To gain insights in transcriptional reprogramming during late hours of waterlogging stress under field conditions, we aimed to elucidate the transcriptional and anatomical changes in two contrasting maize inbreds viz. I110 (susceptible) and I172 (tolerant). Waterlogging stress reduced dry matter translocations from leaves and stems to ears, resulting in a lack of sink capacity and inadequate grain filling in I110, thus decreased the grain yield drastically. The development of aerenchyma cells within 48 h in I172 enabled hypoxia tolerance. The upregulation of alanine aminotransferase, ubiquitin activating enzyme E1, putative mitogen activated protein kinase and pyruvate kinase in I172 suggested that genes involved in protein degradation, signal transduction and carbon metabolism provided adaptive mechanisms during waterlogging. Overexpression of alcohol dehydrogenase, sucrose synthase, aspartate aminotransferase, NADP dependent malic enzyme and many miRNA targets in I110 indicated that more oxygen and energy consumption might have shortened plant survival during long-term waterlogging exposure. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first report of transcript profiling at late stage (24−96 h) of waterlogging stress under field conditions and provides new visions to understand the molecular basis of waterlogging tolerance in maize.

在当前的气候变化情景中，玉米的内涝胁迫是新兴的非生物胁迫之一。为了深入了解田间条件下淹水胁迫后期的转录重编程，我们旨在阐明两种玉米自交系的转录和解剖学变化。I110（敏感）和I172（容忍）。淹水胁迫减少了I110上干物质从叶和茎到耳朵的转运，导致缺乏下沉能力和I110籽粒填充不足，从而大大降低了谷物产量。I172在48小时内气孔细胞的发展使耐缺氧性得以实现。I172中丙氨酸转氨酶，泛素激活酶E1，假定的丝裂原激活的蛋白激酶和丙酮酸激酶的上调表明，参与蛋白质降解，信号转导和碳代谢的基因在涝渍时期提供了适应性机制。酒精脱氢酶，蔗糖合酶，天冬氨酸转氨酶，I110中NADP依赖性苹果酸酶和许多miRNA靶标表明，长期内涝期间更多的氧气和能量消耗可能缩短了植物的存活期。据我们所知，这是田间条件下浸水胁迫后期（24-96 h）的转录谱分析的首次报道，为了解玉米浸水耐性的分子基础提供了新的视野。