Identification and Expression Analysis of the Populus trichocarpa GASA-Gene Family.

Kai Wu,Li’An Xu,Yating Tian,Xin Han,Yanshu Qu,Hao Rong

doi:10.3390/ijms23031507

Kai Wu, Li’An Xu + Show 4 more

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https://doi.org/10.3390/ijms23031507

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Abstract

The gibberellic acid-stimulated Arabidopsis (GASA) gene family plays an important regulatory role in the growth and development of plants. In this study, we identified 19 GASA genes using bioinformatics-based methods in Populus trichocarpa, and these PtGASA genes could be divided into three categories based on their phylogenetic relationships. Based on an analysis of the structure and motifs of these genes, it was concluded that PtGASA class II members are more conserved than class I and class III members are, and the results of collinearity analysis showed that members of class II are collinearly related in poplar. Expression analysis of Populus trichocarpa roots, stems, and leaves showed that most of the PtGASA genes are expressed at higher levels in the stems or roots than in the leaves; a similar expression pattern was found in Vitis vinifera, indicating that the GASA-family members mainly play a role in the morphogenesis of poplar. Considering the phenomenon of gene amplification, we found that the higher the similarity of homologous genes was, the more similar the expression patterns. This study represents the first whole-genome identification and expression-profile analysis of the GASA-gene family in poplar, a model species, laying a foundation for functional studies of poplar GASA genes and serving as a reference for related research on other woody plant species.

Highlights

Gibberellic acid (GA) is a plant hormone that promotes growth, germination, flowering, and fruiting and affects all stages of higher plant growth [1,2,3]
The gibberellic acidstimulated Arabidopsis (GASA) gene family is unique in plants, and the expression of its members is induced by gibberellin
GASA proteins were first identified in Lycopersicon esculentum in 1992 and later identified in Petunia hybrida, Solanum tuberosum, Oryza sativa, Zea mays, Fragaria × ananassa Duch, Arabidopsis thaliana, and Theobroma cacao [4,5,6,7,8,9,11,12]

Summary

Introduction

Gibberellic acid (GA) is a plant hormone that promotes growth, germination, flowering, and fruiting and affects all stages of higher plant growth [1,2,3]. The gibberellic acidstimulated Arabidopsis (GASA) gene family is unique in plants, and the expression of its members is induced by gibberellin. In Arabidopsis, the gene family is referred to as GASA genes and has been relatively thoroughly studied [4,5,6,7,8,9,10]. GASA genes play vital regulatory roles in plant growth and development. They mainly participate in plant growth and development, hormonesignal transduction, and redox reactions, and these genes are involved in a series of regulatory responses, such as cell growth and division and biological and abiotic stress responses [4,13,14,15]. GASA proteins generally contain an N-terminal signal peptide and a conserved C-terminal domain.

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