Abstract
BackgroundsC2H2-type zinc finger protein (ZFPs) form a relatively large family of transcriptional regulators in plants, and play many roles in plant growth, development, and stress response. However, the comprehensive analysis of C2H2 ZFPs in cucumber (CsZFPs) and their regulation function in cucumber are still lacking.ResultsIn the current study, the whole genome identification and characterization of CsZFPs, including the gene structure, genome localization, phylogenetic relationship, and gene expression were performed. Functional analysis of 4 selected genes by transient transformation were also conducted. A total of 129 full-length CsZFPs were identified, which could be classified into four groups according to the phylogenetic analysis. The 129 CsZFPs unequally distributed on 7 chromosomes. Promoter cis-element analysis showed that the CsZFPs might involve in the regulation of phytohormone and/or abiotic stress response, and 93 CsZFPs were predicted to be targeted by one to 20 miRNAs. Moreover, the subcellular localization analysis indicated that 10 tested CsZFPs located in the nucleus and the transcriptome profiling analysis of CsZFPs demonstrated that these genes are involved in root and floral development, pollination and fruit spine. Furthermore, the transient overexpression of Csa1G085390 and Csa7G071440 into Nicotiana benthamiana plants revealed that they could decrease and induce leave necrosis in response to pathogen attack, respectively, and they could enhance salt and drought stresses through the initial induction of H2O2. In addition, Csa4G642460 and Csa6G303740 could induce cell death after 5 days transformation.ConclusionsThe identification and function analysis of CsZFPs demonstrated that some key individual CsZFPs might play essential roles in response to biotic and abiotic stresses. These results could lay the foundation for understanding the role of CsZFPs in cucumber development for future genetic engineering studies.
Highlights
Plants frequently suffer from various biotic and abiotic stresses which adversely affect plant growth and development [1, 2], while transcription factor (TFs) are important regulators that involved in various biological and environmental stress processes [3]
C2H2-zinc finger proteins (ZFPs) display a wide range of structure and functions, from DNA or RNA binding to the involvement in protein-protein interactions [5], which fulfill their function as key transcriptional regulators to play important roles in adverse stresses, such as drought, low-temperature, salt, and oxidative stresses [10]
The non-representative alternative splicing forms origin from same gene locus were treated as same gene and 129 C2H2 ZFPs in cucumber (CsZFPs) genes were retrieved from cucumber genome database (Table 1)
Summary
Plants frequently suffer from various biotic and abiotic stresses which adversely affect plant growth and development [1, 2], while transcription factor (TFs) are important regulators that involved in various biological and environmental stress processes [3]. Zinc finger proteins (ZFPs) account for a relatively large family of eukaryotic transcription factors [4]. C2H2-type zinc finger proteins (C2H2-ZFPs) are classical ones which have been widely studied. The C2H2type of zinc finger proteins, referred to as the TFIIIA type zinc finger that contains two Cys and two His residues in the zinc finger domain, are described as CX2-4CX3FX5LX2HX3-5H, which form the conservative and best-characterized DNA-binding motif [9, 10]. C2H2-ZFPs display a wide range of structure and functions, from DNA or RNA binding to the involvement in protein-protein interactions [5], which fulfill their function as key transcriptional regulators to play important roles in adverse stresses, such as drought, low-temperature, salt, and oxidative stresses [10]
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