State Key Laboratory of Crop Stress Biology for Arid Areas, College of Plant Protection, Northwest A&F University, Yangling, Shaanxi, 712100, People's Republic of China.
College of Food Science and Engineering, Xinjiang Institute of Technology, Aksu, 843100, People's Republic of China.
BMC Plant Biol. 2023 Sep 20;23(1):441. doi: 10.1186/s12870-023-04418-1.
Heat shock factor (HSF), a typical class of transcription factors in plants, has played an essential role in plant growth and developmental stages, signal transduction, and response to biotic and abiotic stresses. The HSF genes families has been identified and characterized in many species through leveraging whole genome sequencing (WGS). However, the identification and systematic analysis of HSF family genes in Rye is limited.
In this study, 31 HSF genes were identified in Rye, which were unevenly distributed on seven chromosomes. Based on the homology of A. thaliana, we analyzed the number of conserved domains and gene structures of ScHSF genes that were classified into seven subfamilies. To better understand the developmental mechanisms of ScHSF family during evolution, we selected one monocotyledon (Arabidopsis thaliana) and five (Triticum aestivum L., Hordeum vulgare L., Oryza sativa L., Zea mays L., and Aegilops tauschii Coss.) specific representative dicotyledons associated with Rye for comparative homology mapping. The results showed that fragment replication events modulated the expansion of the ScHSF genes family. In addition, interactions between ScHSF proteins and promoters containing hormone- and stress-responsive cis-acting elements suggest that the regulation of ScHSF expression was complex. A total of 15 representative genes were targeted from seven subfamilies to characterize their gene expression responses in different tissues, fruit developmental stages, three hormones, and six different abiotic stresses.
This study demonstrated that ScHSF genes, especially ScHSF1 and ScHSF3, played a key role in Rye development and its response to various hormones and abiotic stresses. These results provided new insights into the evolution of HSF genes in Rye, which could help the success of molecular breeding in Rye.
热休克因子（HSF）是植物中典型的一类转录因子，在植物生长发育阶段、信号转导以及对生物和非生物胁迫的响应中发挥着重要作用。通过利用全基因组测序（WGS），已经在许多物种中鉴定和描述了 HSF 基因家族。然而，对黑麦中 HSF 家族基因的鉴定和系统分析还很有限。
本研究在黑麦中鉴定出 31 个 HSF 基因，它们不均匀地分布在 7 条染色体上。基于拟南芥的同源性，我们分析了 ScHSF 基因保守结构域和基因结构的数量，并将其分为 7 个亚家族。为了更好地理解 ScHSF 家族在进化过程中的发育机制，我们选择了一个单子叶植物（拟南芥）和五个与黑麦相关的特定双子叶植物（小麦、大麦、水稻、玉米和粗山羊草）进行同源性比较图谱。结果表明，片段复制事件调节了 ScHSF 基因家族的扩张。此外，ScHSF 蛋白与含有激素和应激响应顺式作用元件的启动子之间的相互作用表明，ScHSF 表达的调控是复杂的。我们从 7 个亚家族中总共选择了 15 个代表性基因，以表征它们在不同组织、果实发育阶段、三种激素和六种不同非生物胁迫下的基因表达响应。
本研究表明，ScHSF 基因，特别是 ScHSF1 和 ScHSF3，在黑麦发育及其对各种激素和非生物胁迫的响应中发挥着关键作用。这些结果为黑麦 HSF 基因的进化提供了新的见解，这可能有助于黑麦的分子育种取得成功。
