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Systematic analysis of GT factor family of rice reveals a novel subfamily involved in stress responses

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Abstract

GT factors constitute a plant-specific transcription factor family with a conserved trihelix DNA-binding domain. In this study, comprehensive sequence analysis suggested that 26 putative GT factors exist in rice. Phylogenetic analysis revealed three distinctive subfamilies (GTα, GTβ, and GTγ) of plant GT factors and each subfamily has a unique composition of predicted motifs. We characterized the OsGTγ-1 gene, a typical member of the GTγ subfamily in rice. This gene encodes a protein containing a conserved trihelix domain, and the OsGTγ-1:GFP fusion protein was targeted to nuclei of rice cells. The transcript level of OsGTγ-1 was strongly induced by salt stress and slightly induced by drought and cold stresses and abscisic acid treatment. Two other members of the GTγ subfamily, OsGTγ-2 and OsGTγ-3, were also induced by most of the abiotic stresses. These results suggested that the genes of the GTγ subfamily in rice may be involved in stress responses. A homozygous mutant osgtγ-1 (with T-DNA inserted in the promoter region of OsGTγ-1) showed more sensitive to salt stress than wild-type rice. Overexpression of OsGTγ-1 in rice enhanced salt tolerance at the seedling stage. This evidence suggests that the OsGTγ subfamily may participate in the regulation of stress tolerance in rice.

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Acknowledgments

This work was supported by grants from the National Special Key Project of China on Functional Genomics of Major Plants and Animals, the National Program on the Development of Basic Research, the National Natural Science Foundation of China, and the Ministry of Education of China (NO 707045).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. National Key Laboratory of Crop Genetic Improvement, National Center of Plant Gene Research (Wuhan), Huazhong Agricultural University, 430070, Wuhan, China

    Yujie Fang, Kabin Xie, Xin Hou, Honghong Hu & Lizhong Xiong

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  1. Yujie Fang
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  2. Kabin Xie
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  3. Xin Hou
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  5. Lizhong Xiong
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Correspondence to Lizhong Xiong.

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Communicated by A. Tyagi.

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Fang, Y., Xie, K., Hou, X. et al. Systematic analysis of GT factor family of rice reveals a novel subfamily involved in stress responses. Mol Genet Genomics 283, 157–169 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00438-009-0507-x

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