HB1 — Zea mays

Summary

ZmHB1 (HB1) on maize chromosome 9 encodes a protein with oxygen carrier activity, oxygen binding, heme binding, redox activity, and DNA and protein binding. It is associated with hemoglobin anabolism, oxygen transport, response to nitric oxide and nitrite, S-nitrosylation, oxidative phosphorylation, and fatty acid oxidation. The gene has been linked to seedling height, shoot and root dry weight, submergence tolerance, photosynthetic rate, stomatal resistance, root architecture, and zinc concentration. Associations also include seed oil content, polyunsaturated fatty acid content, cold tolerance, drought tolerance, nitrogen metabolism, and hypoxia response. The product localizes to the cytosol, nucleus, plasmalemma, and plasmodesmata. Studies of related genes in other species link the family to waterlogging tolerance, nitrogen use efficiency, cadmium tolerance, and fungal resistance.