Characterization of Cotton ARF Factors and the Role of GhARF2b in Fiber Development

Overview

Journal BMC Genomics

Publisher Biomed Central

Specialty Genetics

Date 2021 Mar 23

PMID 33752589

Citations 12

Authors

Xiufang Zhang

Junfeng Cao

Chaochen Huang

Zishou Zheng

Xia Liu

Xiaoxia Shangguan

Lingjian Wang

Yugao Zhang

Zhiwen Chen

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

Background: Cotton fiber is a model system for studying plant cell development. At present, the functions of many transcription factors in cotton fiber development have been elucidated, however, the roles of auxin response factor (ARF) genes in cotton fiber development need be further explored.

Results: Here, we identify auxin response factor (ARF) genes in three cotton species: the tetraploid upland cotton G. hirsutum, which has 73 ARF genes, and its putative extent parental diploids G. arboreum and G. raimondii, which have 36 and 35 ARFs, respectively. Ka and Ks analyses revealed that in G. hirsutum ARF genes have undergone asymmetric evolution in the two subgenomes. The cotton ARFs can be classified into four phylogenetic clades and are actively expressed in young tissues. We demonstrate that GhARF2b, a homolog of the Arabidopsis AtARF2, was preferentially expressed in developing ovules and fibers. Overexpression of GhARF2b by a fiber specific promoter inhibited fiber cell elongation but promoted initiation and, conversely, its downregulation by RNAi resulted in fewer but longer fiber. We show that GhARF2b directly interacts with GhHOX3 and represses the transcriptional activity of GhHOX3 on target genes.

Conclusion: Our results uncover an important role of the ARF factor in modulating cotton fiber development at the early stage.

Citing Articles

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AaMYC3 bridges the regulation of glandular trichome density and artemisinin biosynthesis in Artemisia annua.

Yuan M, Sheng Y, Bao J, Wu W, Nie G, Wang L Plant Biotechnol J. 2024; 23(2):315-332.

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Expression profile analysis of cotton fiber secondary cell wall thickening stage.

Liu L, Grover C, Kong X, Jareczek J, Wang X, Si A PeerJ. 2024; 12:e17682.

PMID: 38993976 PMC: 11238726. DOI: 10.7717/peerj.17682.

Genomic survey and expression analysis of LcARFs reveal multiple functions to somatic embryogenesis in Liriodendron.

Xu L, Liu Y, Zhang J, Wu W, Hao Z, He S BMC Plant Biol. 2024; 24(1):94.

PMID: 38326748 PMC: 10848544. DOI: 10.1186/s12870-024-04765-7.

An analysis of lncRNAs related to fiber quality and the discovery of their target genes in a Gossypium hirsutum line with Gossypium mustelinum introgression.

Wang B, Ji M, Fang H, Gu H, Mehari T, Han J Theor Appl Genet. 2024; 137(2):40.

PMID: 38296887 DOI: 10.1007/s00122-024-04541-z.

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