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ZmGRF, a GA regulatory factor from maize, promotes flowering and plant growth in Arabidopsis

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Abstract

Transcription factors that act as positive regulators of gibberellin (GA) biosynthetic genes in plants are not well understood. A nuclear-localized basic leucine zipper transcription factor, ZmGRF, was isolated from maize. The core DNA sequence motif recognized for binding by ZmGRF was CCANNTGGC. ZmGRF overexpression in transgenic Arabidopsis plants promoted flowering, stem elongation, and cell expansion. Chromatin immunoprecipitation assays revealed that ZmGRF bound directly to the cis-element CCANNTGGC in the promoter of the Arabidopsis ent-kaurene oxidase (AtKO1) gene and promoted AtKO1 expression. GA4 content increased by 372–567 % in transgenic Arabidopsis plants overexpressing ZmGRF compared to wild-type control plants. The GIBBERELLIN-INSENSITIVE DWARF1 gene, which encodes a GA receptor, was also upregulated and the growth-repressing DELLA protein gene GA INSENSITIVE was downregulated. Our results showed ZmGRF functioned through the GA-signaling pathway.

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Acknowledgments

We thank Dr Xiaoduo Lu (Department of Life Sciences, Qilu Normal University) for DIC microscopy analysis. This work was supported by the National High-Tech R&D Program (Grant No. 2012AA10A306), the National Key Basic Research Program (Grant No. 2014CB138200) and the National Special Program for Transgenic Research (2010ZX08010-002).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Biotechnology Research Institute, National Key Facility for Crop Gene Resources and Genetic Improvement, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Beijing, 100081, China

    Miaoyun Xu, Hongmei Yang, Zhiqiu Hu, Xiaolong Hu, Mingda Luan, Lan Zhang, Yunliu Fan & Lei Wang

  2. Shenzhen Nongke Group CO., Ltd, Shenzhen, 518000, China

    Yunming Lu & Jingcheng He

  3. Institute of Microbiology, Xinjiang Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Urumqi, 830091, Xinjiang, China

    Hongmei Yang

  4. Department of Agriculture Food and Nutritional Science, University of Alberta, Edmonton, T6G 2C8, Canada

    Zhiqiu Hu

  5. College of Life Science and Engineering, Southwest University of Sciences and Technology, Mianyang, China

    Xiaolong Hu & Mingda Luan

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  1. Miaoyun Xu
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  2. Yunming Lu
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  3. Hongmei Yang
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  4. Jingcheng He
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  5. Zhiqiu Hu
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  6. Xiaolong Hu
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  7. Mingda Luan
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  8. Lan Zhang
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  9. Yunliu Fan
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  10. Lei Wang
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Lei Wang.

Additional information

Accession number: Sequence data from this paper can be found in the databank with the following gene code: ZmGRF KJ466125.

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Xu, M., Lu, Y., Yang, H. et al. ZmGRF, a GA regulatory factor from maize, promotes flowering and plant growth in Arabidopsis . Plant Mol Biol 87, 157–167 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11103-014-0267-9

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11103-014-0267-9

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