grants from the National Natural Science Foundation of China (51222905, 51321001, 51439006);the National High-Tech R&D Program of China (863 Program, 2011AA100505);the Ministry of Water Resources of China (201201003);the Program for New Century Excellent Talents in University, Ministry of Education, China (NCET11-0479)
Maize is widely planted throughout the world and has the highest yield of all the cereal crops. The arid region of North- west China has become the largest base for seed-maize production, but water shortage is the bot...