Abstract
The phytochrome A signal transduction 1 (PAT1) subfamily is a widely known branch of the GRAS family that has diverse regulatory roles in phytochrome signal transduction and transcriptional regulation, which is involved in the developmental processes of plants. Our previous study, using GeneChip Poplar Genome Arrays, indicated that PAT1 branch genes are possibly involved in adventitious root development in Populus. In this study, we isolated and characterized nine putative PAT1 branch genes from a hybrid poplar. A multiple sequence alignment revealed that the proteins contained substantially conserved C-terminal GRAS domains and highly variable N-terminals, and a further phylogenetic analysis confirmed that these genes belong to the PAT1 subfamily. Temporal and spatial expression profiles of the nine PAT1 branch genes showed high expression levels during adventitious root development. Finally, the subcellular localization showed that most of PePAT1s were localized to the nucleus, whereas PePAT1.1 was localized to the cytoplasm. Thus, our results indicated that nine PAT1 branch genes might be associated with adventitious root development, and they provided the basis for future research on the functions of the PAT1 subfamily in Populus.
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Abbreviations
- PAT1:
-
Phytochrome A signal transduction 1
- phy-A:
-
Phytochrome A
- CIGR:
-
Chitin-inducible gibberellin-responsive
- SIN1:
-
Scarecrow-like13 Involved in nodulation 1
- RACE:
-
Rapid amplification of cDNA ends
- PCR:
-
Polymerase chain reaction
- RT-PCR:
-
Reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction
- ORF:
-
Open reading frame
- GFP:
-
Green fluorescent protein
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Acknowledgments
This project was supported by grants from the Natural Science Foundation of the Jiangsu Higher Education Institutions of China (13KJA220002), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (31570671 and 31100484), the Natural Science Foundation of Jiangsu Province (BK20150551), and the Priority Academic Program Development of Jiangsu Higher Education Institutions (PAPD).
Author’s contributions
Meng Xu designed the experiments and analyzed the data. Heng Cai and Lei Xuan carried out the experiments. Meng Xu and Heng Cai wrote the manuscript. Li-An Xu and Min-Ren Huang help to design the experiments. All authors read and approved the manuscript.
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Heng Cai and Lei Xuan have contributed equally to this work.
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Cai, H., Xuan, L., Xu, LA. et al. Identification and characterization of nine PAT1 branch genes in poplar. Plant Growth Regul 81, 355–364 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10725-016-0212-9
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10725-016-0212-9