College of Life Sciences, Shaanxi Normal University, Xi'an, 710119, China.
Institute for Advanced Studies, Wuhan University, Wuhan, 430072, China.
BMC Plant Biol. 2019 Jul 23;19(1):329. doi: 10.1186/s12870-019-1932-6.
Zinc finger proteins (ZFPs) containing only a single zinc finger domain play important roles in the regulation of plant growth and development, as well as in biotic and abiotic stress responses. To date, the evolutionary history and functions of the ZFP gene family have not been identified in cotton.
In this paper, we identified 29 ZFP genes in Gossypium hirsutum. This gene family was divided into seven subfamilies, 22 of which were distributed over 17 chromosomes. Bioinformatic analysis revealed that 20 GhZFP genes originated from whole genome duplications and two originated from dispersed duplication events, indicating that whole genome duplication is the main force in the expansion of the GhZFP gene family. Most GhZFP8 subfamily genes, except for GhZFP8-3, were highly expressed during fiber cell growth, and were induced by brassinosteroids in vitro. Furthermore, we found that a large number of GhZFP genes contained gibberellic acid responsive elements, auxin responsive elements, and E-box elements in their promoter regions. Exogenous application of these hormones significantly stimulated the expression of these genes.
Our findings reveal that GhZFP8 genes are involved in cotton fiber development and widely induced by auxin, gibberellin and BR, which provides a foundation for the identification of more downstream genes with potential roles in phytohormone stimuli, and a basis for breeding better cotton varieties in the future.
仅含有单个锌指结构域的锌指蛋白在植物生长发育以及生物和非生物胁迫反应的调控中发挥着重要作用。迄今为止，棉花中 ZFP 基因家族的进化历史和功能尚未确定。
本文在陆地棉中鉴定出 29 个 ZFP 基因。该基因家族分为 7 个亚家族，其中 22 个分布在 17 条染色体上。生物信息学分析表明，20 个 GhZFP 基因来源于全基因组复制，2 个来源于分散复制事件，表明全基因组复制是 GhZFP 基因家族扩张的主要力量。除了 GhZFP8-3 外，大多数 GhZFP8 亚家族基因在纤维细胞生长过程中高度表达，并在体外受到油菜素内酯的诱导。此外，我们发现大量 GhZFP 基因在启动子区域含有赤霉素响应元件、生长素响应元件和 E 盒元件。这些激素的外源处理显著刺激了这些基因的表达。
我们的研究结果表明，GhZFP8 基因参与棉花纤维发育，广泛受到生长素、赤霉素和 BR 的诱导，这为鉴定更多在植物激素刺激中具有潜在作用的下游基因提供了基础，也为未来培育更好的棉花品种提供了基础。
