Song Huifang, Ji Xuchao, Wang Mingyang, Li Juan, Wang Xi, Meng Liying, Wei Peipei, Xu Haiyan, Niu Tianzeng, Liu Ake
Department of Life Sciences, Changzhi University, Changzhi 046011, China.
School of Life Science, Shanxi Normal University, Taiyuan 030031, China.
Gene. 2024 Jun 5;910:148336. doi: 10.1016/j.gene.2024.148336. Epub 2024 Mar 4.
DNA binding with one finger (Dof), plant-specific zinc finger transcription factors, can participate in various physiological and biochemical processes during the life of plants. As one of the most important oil crops in the world, sunflower (Helianthus annuus L.) has significant economic and ornamental value. However, a systematic analysis of H. annuus Dof (HaDof) members and their functions has not been extensively conducted. In this study, we identified 50 HaDof genes that are unevenly distributed on 17 chromosomes of sunflower. We present a comprehensive overview of the HaDof genes, including their chromosome locations, phylogenetic analysis, and expression profile characterization. Phylogenetic analysis classified the 366 Dof members identified from 11 species into four groups (further subdivided into nine subfamilies). Segmental duplications are predominantly contributed to the expansion of sunflower Dof genes, and all segmental duplicate gene pairs are under purifying selection due to strong evolutionary constraints. Furthermore, we observed differential expression patterns for HaDof genes in normal tissues as well as under hormone treatment or abiotic stress conditions by analyzing RNA-seq data from previous studies and RT-qPCR data in our current study. The expression of HaDof04 and HaDof43 were not detected in any samples, which implied that they may be gradually undergoing pseudogenization process. Some HaDof genes, such as HaDof25 and HaDof30, showed responsiveness to exogenous plant hormones, such as kinetin, brassinosteroid, auxin or strigolactone, while others like HaDof15 and HaDof35 may participate in abiotic stress resistance of sunflower seedling. Our study represents the initial step towards understanding the phylogeny and expression characterization of sunflower Dof family genes, which may provide valuable reference information for functional studies on hormone response, abiotic stress resistance, and molecular breeding in sunflower and other species.
单指DNA结合（Dof）蛋白是植物特有的锌指转录因子，可参与植物生长过程中的各种生理生化过程。向日葵（Helianthus annuus L.）作为世界上最重要的油料作物之一，具有重要的经济和观赏价值。然而，尚未对向日葵Dof（HaDof）成员及其功能进行系统分析。在本研究中，我们鉴定了50个HaDof基因，它们不均匀地分布在向日葵的17条染色体上。我们对HaDof基因进行了全面概述，包括它们的染色体定位、系统发育分析和表达谱特征。系统发育分析将从11个物种中鉴定出的366个Dof成员分为四组（进一步细分为九个亚家族）。片段重复是向日葵Dof基因扩增的主要原因，并且由于强烈的进化限制，所有片段重复基因对都受到纯化选择。此外，通过分析先前研究的RNA-seq数据和我们当前研究中的RT-qPCR数据，我们观察到HaDof基因在正常组织以及激素处理或非生物胁迫条件下的差异表达模式。在任何样品中均未检测到HaDof04和HaDof43的表达，这意味着它们可能正在逐渐经历假基因化过程。一些HaDof基因，如HaDof25和HaDof30，对外源植物激素，如激动素、油菜素内酯、生长素或独脚金内酯有反应，而其他基因，如HaDof15和HaDof35，可能参与向日葵幼苗的非生物胁迫抗性。我们的研究是了解向日葵Dof家族基因系统发育和表达特征的第一步，可为向日葵和其他物种的激素反应、非生物胁迫抗性及分子育种功能研究提供有价值的参考信息。
