Abstract
Tillering ability is a key agronomy trait for wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) production. Studies on a dwarf monoculm wheat mutant (dmc) showed that ARF11 played an important role in tillering of wheat. In this study, a total of 67 ARF family members were identified and clustered to two main classes with four subgroups based on their protein structures. The promoter regions of T. aestivum ARF (TaARF) genes contain a large number of cis-acting elements closely related to plant growth and development, and hormone response. The segmental duplication events occurred commonly and played a major role in the expansion of TaARFs. The gene collinearity degrees of the ARFs between wheat and other grasses, rice and maize, were significantly high. The evolution distances among TaARFs determine their expression profiles, such as homoeologous genes have similar expression profiles, like TaARF4-3A-1, TaARF4-3A-2 and their homoeologous genes. The expression profiles of TaARFs in various tissues or organs indicated TaARF3, TaARF4, TaARF9 and TaARF22 and their homoeologous genes played basic roles during wheat development. TaARF4, TaARF9, TaARF12, TaARF15, TaARF17, TaARF21, TaARF25 and their homoeologous genes probably played basic roles in tiller development. qRT-PCR analyses of 20 representative TaARF genes revealed that the abnormal expressions of TaARF11 and TaARF14 were major causes constraining the tillering of dmc. Indole-3-acetic acid (IAA) contents in dmc were significantly less than that in Guomai 301 at key tillering stages. Exogenous IAA application significantly promoted wheat tillering, and affected the transcriptions of TaARFs. These data suggested that TaARFs as well as IAA signaling were involved in controlling wheat tillering. This study provided valuable clues for functional characterization of ARFs in wheat.
Highlights
Auxin response factors (ARFs) belong to a subfamily of plant B3 superfamily, and they are a kind of plant-specific transcription factors (Liu & Dong, 2017)
A total of 23 wheat ARF members encoded by 68 homoeoalleles are identified from wheat reference genome version TGACv1 (Qiao et al, 2018), and 61 T. aestivum ARF (TaARF) genes are identified from genome version IWGSC1+ popseq.31 (Sun et al, 2018)
A total of 67 TaARFs were identified in wheat
Summary
Auxin response factors (ARFs) belong to a subfamily of plant B3 superfamily, and they are a kind of plant-specific transcription factors (Liu & Dong, 2017). As whole plant genomic sequences have been reported continuously, ARF gene families in many plant species have been systematically analyzed, such as 23 ARF genes in Arabidopsis thaliana (Okushima et al, 2005), 31 ARF genes in maize (Zea mays L.) (Xing et al, 2011), 25 ARF genes in rice (Oryza sativa L.) (Wang et al, 2007), 4 ARF genes in millet (Setaria italica L.) (Zhao et al, 2016), and 20 ARF genes in barley (Hordeum vulgare L.) (Huseyin, 2018) These data will significantly promote the functional studies of plant ARF genes. Transgenic rice (Oryza sativa L.) lines decreasing O. sativa ARF1 (OsARF1) expression are low vigor, stunt growth, have short curled leaves and are sterility, which suggests that OsARF1 plays an important role in both vegetative and reproductive organ developments (Attia et al, 2019)
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a callDisclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.
