Department of Agriculture Food and Environment, University of Pisa, Via del Borghetto 80, 56124 Pisa, Italy.
Scuola Superiore Sant'Anna, Piazza Martiri della Libertà 33, 56127 Pisa, Italy.
Int J Mol Sci. 2023 Feb 8;24(4):3352. doi: 10.3390/ijms24043352.
The WUSCHEL-related homeobox () is a family of specific transcription factors involved in plant development and response to stress, characterized by the presence of a homeodomain. This study represents the first comprehensive characterization of the family in a member of the Asteraceae family, the sunflower ( L.). Overall, we identified 18 putative genes divided by phylogenetic analysis in three major clades (i.e., ancient, intermediate, and WUS). These genes showed conserved structural and functional motifs. Moreover, has homogeneously distributed on chromosomes. In particular, 10 genes originated after whole segment duplication events, underpinning a possible evolution of this family along with the sunflower genome. In addition, gene expression analysis evidenced a specific pattern of regulation of the putative 18 during embryo growth and in ovule and inflorescence meristem differentiation, suggesting a pivotal role for this multigenic family in sunflower development. The results obtained in this work improved the understanding of the multigenic family, providing a resource for future study on functional analysis in an economically valuable species such as sunflower.
WUSCHEL 相关同源盒（）是一类参与植物发育和应激反应的特异性转录因子家族，其特征是存在同源域。本研究首次全面描述了菊科植物向日葵（L.）中 家族的特征。总体而言，我们通过系统发育分析鉴定了 18 个假定的 基因，它们分为三个主要分支（即古老、中间和 WUS）。这些基因显示出保守的结构和功能基序。此外， 在 条染色体上均匀分布。特别是，10 个基因起源于全片段重复事件，这表明该家族与向日葵基因组一起可能发生了进化。此外，基因表达分析表明，假定的 18 个 在胚胎生长和胚珠及花序分生组织分化过程中的调控模式具有特异性，这表明该多基因家族在向日葵发育中起着关键作用。本研究的结果提高了对 多基因家族的理解，为在向日葵等经济价值高的物种中进行功能分析提供了资源。
