Genome-wide identification and expression profiling of auxin response factor (ARF) gene family in maize

BMC Genomics

Research Article

Yirong Zhang¹  Ramesh N Pudake²  Qixin Sun²  Guofang Xing²  Zhaorong Hu²  Zhongfu Ni²  Hongyan Xing²  Ganggang Guo² 

[1] State Key Laboratory for Agrobiotechnology and Key Laboratory of Crop Heterosis and Utilization (MOE), Key Laboratory of Crop Genomics and Genetic Improvement (MOA), Beijing Key Laboratory of Crop Genetic Improvement, China Agricultural University, 100193, Beijing, China;National Maize Improvement Center, 100193, Beijing, China;State Key Laboratory for Agrobiotechnology and Key Laboratory of Crop Heterosis and Utilization (MOE), Key Laboratory of Crop Genomics and Genetic Improvement (MOA), Beijing Key Laboratory of Crop Genetic Improvement, China Agricultural University, 100193, Beijing, China;National Plant Gene Research Centre (Beijing), 100193, Beijing, China;

关键词: Bacterial Artificial Chromosome;    Auxin Response Factor;    Maize Inbred Line;    Auxin Treatment;    Maize Chromosome;   

DOI  :  10.1186/1471-2164-12-178

 received in 2010-04-26, accepted in 2011-04-07,  发布年份 2011

来源: Springer

【 摘 要 】

BackgroundAuxin signaling is vital for plant growth and development, and plays important role in apical dominance, tropic response, lateral root formation, vascular differentiation, embryo patterning and shoot elongation. Auxin Response Factors (ARFs) are the transcription factors that regulate the expression of auxin responsive genes. The ARF genes are represented by a large multigene family in plants. The first draft of full maize genome assembly has recently been released, however, to our knowledge, the ARF gene family from maize (ZmARF genes) has not been characterized in detail.ResultsIn this study, 31 maize (Zea mays L.) genes that encode ARF proteins were identified in maize genome. It was shown that maize ARF genes fall into related sister pairs and chromosomal mapping revealed that duplication of ZmARFs was associated with the chromosomal block duplications. As expected, duplication of some ZmARFs showed a conserved intron/exon structure, whereas some others were more divergent, suggesting the possibility of functional diversification for these genes. Out of these 31 ZmARF genes, 14 possess auxin-responsive element in their promoter region, among which 7 appear to show small or negligible response to exogenous auxin. The 18 ZmARF genes were predicted to be the potential targets of small RNAs. Transgenic analysis revealed that increased miR167 level could cause degradation of transcripts of six potential targets (ZmARF3, 9, 16, 18, 22 and 30). The expressions of maize ARF genes are responsive to exogenous auxin treatment. Dynamic expression patterns of ZmARF genes were observed in different stages of embryo development.ConclusionsMaize ARF gene family is expanded (31 genes) as compared to Arabidopsis (23 genes) and rice (25 genes). The expression of these genes in maize is regulated by auxin and small RNAs. Dynamic expression patterns of ZmARF genes in embryo at different stages were detected which suggest that maize ARF genes may be involved in seed development and germination.

【 授权许可】

Unknown   
© Xing et al; licensee BioMed Central Ltd. 2011. This article is published under license to BioMed Central Ltd. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.