Screening relevant genes of tolerance to low phosphorus in maize using cDNA-amplified fragment length polymorphism

Soil contains a large amount of phosphorus, but plants cannot absorb most of this phosphorus effectively. Low inorganic phosphorus has been singled out as a major constraint that leads to a perpetually low Zea mays (maize) grain yield. The fundamental approach to solving this problem is to screen new genes of low phosphorous (LP) tolerance. Consequently, the exploration and utilization of LP-tolerant genes are of great significance in plants. The maize inbred line 178 is an inbred LP-tolerant line. In the current study, the expression of this inbred line was induced under the stress of LP conditions. We applied cDNA-amplified fragment length polymorphism to screen LP-tolerant genes and obtained and sequenced 78 differentially expressed gene fragments. Their functions were predicted via bioinformatic analysis. There were no function annotations for 8 differentially expressed fragments. Nine genes exhibited high homology to Arabidopsis thaliana and Oryza sativa genes involved in phosphorus metabolism. This study lays a good foundation for further cloning and verification of the genes involved in phosphorus metabolism in maize.