Molecular cloning and characterization of the actin-depolymerizing factor gene in Gossypium barbadense

Genome-Wide Identification and Characterization of Actin-Depolymerizing Factor (ADF) Family Genes and Expression Analysis of Responses to Various Stresses in Zea Mays L

Actin-depolymerizing factor (ADF) is a small class of actin-binding proteins that regulates the dynamics of actin in cells. Moreover, it is well known that the plant ADF family plays key roles in growth, development and defense-related functions. Results: Thirteen maize (Zea mays L., ZmADFs) ADF genes were identified using Hidden Markov Model. Phylogenetic analysis indicated that the 36 identified ADF genes in Physcomitrella patens, Arabidopsis thaliana, Oryza sativa japonica, and Zea mays were clustered into five groups. Four pairs of segmental genes were found in the maize ADF gene family. The tissue-specific expression of ZmADFs and OsADFs was analyzed using microarray data obtained from the Maize and Rice eFP Browsers. Five ZmADFs (ZmADF1/2/7/12/13) from group V exhibited specifically high expression in tassel, pollen, and anther. The expression patterns of 13 ZmADFs in seedlings under five abiotic stresses were analyzed using qRT-PCR, and we found that the ADFs mainly responded to heat, salt, drought, and ABA. Conclusions: In our study, we identified ADF genes in maize and analyzed the gene structure and phylogenetic relationships. The results of expression analysis demonstrated that the expression level of ADF genes was diverse in various tissues and different stimuli, including abiotic and phytohormone stresses, indicating their different roles in plant growth, development, and response to external stimulus. This report extends our knowledge to understand the function of ADF genes in maize.

Genome-Wide Identification, Characterization and Expression Profiling of ADF Family Genes in Solanum lycopersicum L

The actin depolymerizing factor (ADF) proteins have growth, development, defense-related and growth regulatory functions in plants. The present study used genome-wide analysis to investigate ADF family genes in tomato. Eleven tomato ADF genes were identified and differential expression patterns were found in different organs. SlADF6 was preferentially expressed in roots, suggesting its function in root development. SlADF1, SlADF3 and SlADF10 were predominately expressed in the flowers compared to the other organs and specifically in the stamen compared to other flower parts, indicating their potential roles in pollen development. The comparatively higher expression of SlADF3 and SlADF11 at early fruit developmental stages might implicate them in determining final fruit size. SlADF5 and SlADF8 had relatively higher levels of expression five days after the breaker stage of fruit development, suggesting their possible role in fruit ripening. Notably, six genes were induced by cold and heat, seven by drought, five by NaCl, and four each by abscisic acid (ABA), jasmonic acid (JA) and wounding treatments. The differential expression patterns of the SlADF genes under different types of stresses suggested their function in stress tolerance in tomato plants. Our results will be helpful for the functional characterization of ADF genes during organ and fruit development of tomato under different stresses.

Transcriptome profiling of Gossypium barbadense inoculated with Verticillium dahliae provides a resource for cotton improvement

BACKGROUND

Verticillium wilt, caused by the fungal pathogen Verticillium dahliae, is the most severe disease in cotton (Gossypium spp.), causing great lint losses worldwide. Disease management could be achieved in the field if genetically improved, resistant plants were used. However, the interaction between V. dahliae and cotton is a complicated process, and its molecular mechanism remains obscure. To understand better the defense response to this pathogen as a means for obtaining more tolerant cultivars, we monitored the transcriptome profiles of roots from resistant plants of G. barbadense cv. Pima90-53 that were challenged with V. dahliae.

RESULTS

In all, 46,192 high-quality expressed sequence tags (ESTs) were generated from a full-length cDNA library of G. barbadense. They were clustered and assembled into 23126 unigenes that comprised 2661 contigs and 20465 singletons. Those unigenes were assigned Gene Ontology terms and mapped to 289 KEGG pathways. A total of 3027 unigenes were found to be homologous to known defense-related genes in other plants. They were assigned to the functional classification of plant-pathogen interactions, including disease defenses and signal transduction. The branch of "SA→NPR1→TGA→PR-1→Disease resistance" was first discovered in the interaction of cotton-V. dahliae, indicating that this wilt process includes both biotrophic and necrotrophic stages. In all, 4936 genes coding for putative transcription factors (TF) were identified in our library. The most abundant TF family was the NAC group (527), followed by G2-like (440), MYB (372), BHLH (331), bZIP (271) ERF, C3H, and WRKY. We also analyzed the expression of genes involved in pathogen-associated molecular pattern (PAMP) recognition, the activation of effector-triggered immunity, TFs, and hormone biosynthesis, as well as genes that are pathogenesis-related, or have roles in signaling/regulatory functions and cell wall modification. Their differential expression patterns were compared among mock-/inoculated- and resistant/susceptible cotton. Our results suggest that the cotton defense response has significant transcriptional complexity and that large accumulations of defense-related transcripts may contribute to V. dahliae resistance in cotton. Therefore, these data provide a resource for cotton improvement through molecular breeding approaches.

CONCLUSIONS

This study generated a substantial amount of cotton transcript sequences that are related to defense responses against V. dahliae. These genomics resources and knowledge of important related genes contribute to our understanding of host-pathogen interactions and the defense mechanisms utilized by G. barbadense, a non-model plant system. These tools can be applied in establishing a modern breeding program that uses marker-assisted selections and oligonucleotide arrays to identify candidate genes that can be linked to valuable agronomic traits in cotton, including disease resistance.

Generation, annotation and analysis of first large-scale expressed sequence tags from developing fiber of Gossypium barbadense L

Background

Cotton fiber is the world's leading natural fiber used in the manufacture of textiles. Gossypium is also the model plant in the study of polyploidization, evolution, cell elongation, cell wall development, and cellulose biosynthesis. G. barbadense L. is an ideal candidate for providing new genetic variations useful to improve fiber quality for its superior properties. However, little is known about fiber development mechanisms of G. barbadense and only a few molecular resources are available in GenBank.

Methodology and Principal Findings

In total, 10,979 high-quality expressed sequence tags (ESTs) were generated from a normalized fiber cDNA library of G. barbadense. The ESTs were clustered and assembled into 5852 unigenes, consisting of 1492 contigs and 4360 singletons. The blastx result showed 2165 unigenes with significant similarity to known genes and 2687 unigenes with significant similarity to genes of predicted proteins. Functional classification revealed that unigenes were abundant in the functions of binding, catalytic activity, and metabolic pathways of carbohydrate, amino acid, energy, and lipids. The function motif/domain-related cytoskeleton and redox homeostasis were enriched. Among the 5852 unigenes, 282 and 736 unigenes were identified as potential cell wall biosynthesis and transcription factors, respectively. Furthermore, the relationships among cotton species or between cotton and other model plant systems were analyzed. Some putative species-specific unigenes of G. barbadense were highlighted.

Conclusions/Significance

The ESTs generated in this study are from the first large-scale EST project for G. barbadense and significantly enhance the number of G. barbadense ESTs in public databases. This knowledge will contribute to cotton improvements by studying fiber development mechanisms of G. barbadense, establishing a breeding program using marker-assisted selection, and discovering candidate genes related to important agronomic traits of cotton through oligonucleotide array. Our work will also provide important resources for comparative genomics, polyploidization, and genome evolution among Gossypium species.