Fan Sheng, Zhang Dong, Gao Cai, Zhao Ming, Wu Haiqin, Li Youmei, Shen Yawen, Han Mingyu
College of Horticulture, Northwest A&F UniversityYangling, China.
Front Physiol. 2017 Apr 28;8:253. doi: 10.3389/fphys.2017.00253. eCollection 2017.
genes encode plant-specific transcription factors that play important roles in plant growth and development. However, little is known about the gene family in apple. In this study, 127 genes were identified in the apple ( Borkh.) genome and named to according to their chromosomal locations. The chemical characteristics, gene structures and evolutionary relationships of the genes were investigated. The 127 genes could be grouped into eight subfamilies based on their structural features and phylogenetic relationships. Further analysis of gene structures, segmental and tandem duplication, gene phylogeny and tissue-specific expression with ArrayExpress database indicated their diversification in quantity, structure and function. We further examined the expression pattern of genes during apple flower induction with transcriptome sequencing. Eight higher (, and ) genes were surfaced. Further quantitative reverse transcription PCR indicated that the candidate eight genes showed distinct expression patterns among different tissues (leaves, stems, flowers, buds, and fruits). The transcription levels of eight genes were also investigated with various flowering related treatments (GA, 6-BA, and sucrose) and different flowering varieties (Yanfu No. 6 and Nagafu No. 2). They all were affected by flowering-related circumstance and showed different expression level. Changes in response to these hormone or sugar related treatments indicated their potential involvement during apple flower induction. Taken together, our results provide rich resources for studying genes and their potential clues in genetic improvement of apple flowering, which enriches biological theories of genes in apple and their involvement in flower induction of fruit trees.
基因编码在植物生长和发育中起重要作用的植物特异性转录因子。然而，关于苹果中的该基因家族知之甚少。在本研究中，在苹果（Borkh.）基因组中鉴定出127个该基因，并根据它们的染色体位置命名为……。研究了这些基因的化学特性、基因结构和进化关系。基于其结构特征和系统发育关系，这127个基因可分为八个亚家族。利用ArrayExpress数据库对基因结构、片段和串联重复、基因系统发育和组织特异性表达进行进一步分析，表明它们在数量、结构和功能上具有多样性。我们进一步通过转录组测序研究了该基因在苹果花诱导过程中的表达模式。浮出水面的有八个较高表达的（……和……）基因。进一步的定量逆转录PCR表明，这八个候选基因在不同组织（叶、茎、花、芽和果实）中表现出不同的表达模式。还通过各种与开花相关的处理（赤霉素、6-苄氨基腺嘌呤和蔗糖）以及不同的开花品种（烟富6号和长富2号）研究了这八个基因的转录水平。它们都受到与开花相关环境的影响，并表现出不同的表达水平。对这些激素或糖相关处理的反应变化表明它们可能参与苹果花诱导过程。综上所述，我们的结果为研究该基因及其在苹果开花遗传改良中的潜在线索提供了丰富的资源，丰富了苹果中该基因的生物学理论及其在果树花诱导中的作用。
