Wang Wenli, Wu Peng, Li Ying, Hou XiLin
State Key Laboratory of Crop Genetics and Germplasm Enhancement/Key Laboratory of Biology and Germplasm Enhancement of Horticultural Crops in East China, Ministry of Agriculture, Nanjing Agricultural University, Nanjing, 210095, China.
Mol Genet Genomics. 2016 Jun;291(3):1451-64. doi: 10.1007/s00438-015-1136-1. Epub 2015 Nov 6.
The ZF-HD gene family plays an important role in plant developmental processes and stress responses. However, the function of the ZF-HD genes in Chinese cabbage remains largely unknown. Chinese cabbage (Brassica rapa ssp. pekinensis) is a member of one of the most important leaf vegetables grown worldwide. The entire Chinese cabbage genome sequence has been determined, and more than forty thousand proteins have been identified to date. In this study, 31 ZF-HD genes were identified in Chinese cabbage. We show here that the BraZF-HD genes could be categorized into ZHD and MIF subfamilies. Among them, ZHD genes are plant-specific, nearly all intronless, and related to MINI ZINC FINGER genes that possess only the zinc finger. Phylogenetic analysis suggested that ZHDs have expanded considerably during angiosperm evolution. In addition, the ZHD group has 24 members, which is twice as much as the Arabidopsis ZHD group, indicating that the Chinese cabbage ZHD genes have been retained more frequently than other group genes. Real-time PCR analysis showed that most of BraZF-HD genes are preferentially expressed in flower. Furthermore, most of these genes are significantly induced under photoperiod or vernalization conditions, as well as abiotic stresses. Thereby implying that they may play important roles in these processes. This study provides insight into the evolution of ZF-HD genes in Chinese cabbage genome and may aid efforts to further characterize the function of these predicted ZF-HD genes in flowering and resistance.
ZF-HD基因家族在植物发育过程和应激反应中发挥着重要作用。然而，ZF-HD基因在大白菜中的功能仍 largely未知。大白菜（Brassica rapa ssp. pekinensis）是全球种植的最重要叶菜之一。大白菜的全基因组序列已被确定，迄今已鉴定出四万多种蛋白质。在本研究中，在大白菜中鉴定出31个ZF-HD基因。我们在此表明，BraZF-HD基因可分为ZHD和MIF亚家族。其中，ZHD基因是植物特有的，几乎全为无内含子基因，且与仅具有锌指结构的MINI ZINC FINGER基因相关。系统发育分析表明，ZHDs在被子植物进化过程中显著扩增。此外，ZHD组有24个成员，是拟南芥ZHD组的两倍，这表明大白菜ZHD基因比其他组基因保留得更频繁。实时PCR分析表明，大多数BraZF-HD基因在花中优先表达。此外，这些基因中的大多数在光周期或春化条件以及非生物胁迫下均被显著诱导。从而暗示它们可能在这些过程中发挥重要作用。本研究为大白菜基因组中ZF-HD基因的进化提供了见解，并可能有助于进一步表征这些预测的ZF-HD基因在开花和抗性方面的功能。
