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Functional Analysis of Cotton DELLA-Like Genes that are Differentially Regulated during Fiber Development

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Abstract

DELLA proteins act as repressors in the gibberellin (GA) signaling pathway. GA could relieve this repression by triggering DELLA protein degradation via the ubiquitin–proteasome pathway. In this study, we cloned four genes from allotetraploid cotton that encode DELLA-like proteins whose functions have not been characterized previously. These four genes were designated as GhGAI3a, GhGAI3b, GhGAI4a, and GhGAI4b. The deduced proteins encoded by these genes contain all domains present in typical DELLA proteins. Sequence analysis showed that GhGAI3a belongs to the D sub-genome, whereas GhGAI3b belongs to the A sub-genome. The results from the analysis of their expression patterns in allotetraploid cotton showed that their expression was regulated during the fiber initiation and elongation stages. GhGAI3a was expressed at a high level at the fiber initiation stage; however, its transcript level was significantly reduced in fiber cells during the early fiber elongation stage. To test the function of GhGAI3a, we generated transgenic Arabidopsis lines that carried a construct in which expression of GhGAI3a was under the control of the cauliflower mosaic virus 35S promoter. The transgenic Arabidopsis lines exhibited smaller leaves and shorter stems and stamens. In addition, the GhGAI3a overexpression lines showed a defect in GA-induced hypocotyl elongation. These results suggest that GhGAI3a acts as a repressor of the GA signaling pathway.

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Acknowledgements

We would like to thank Prof. Kunbo Wang (Institute of Cotton Research, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences) and Shaohui Li (Hainan Wild Cotton Plantation) for providing the wild diploid cotton seeds. This work was supported by the National Basic Research 973 Program of China (grant # 2004CB117307 and 2010CB126600 to M.P.) and the National Transgenic Animals & Plants Research Initiative (grant # 2009ZX08005-027B to M.P.).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Tropical Bioscience and Biotechnology, Chinese Academy of Tropical Agricultural Sciences, No. 4, XueYuan Road, Long Hua District, Haikou, China

    Wei Wen, Xiaoling Yu, Qiang Chen & Ming Peng

  2. College of Agriculture, Hainan University, Danzhou, China

    Wei Wen, Xiaoling Yu, Qiang Chen & Ming Peng

  3. College of Life Sciences, Xinjiang Shihezi University, Xinjiang, China

    Baiming Cui, Yinying Zheng & Ming Peng

  4. Department of Biology, Hong Kong Baptist University, Hong Kong, China

    Yiji Xia

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  1. Wei Wen
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  2. Baiming Cui
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  3. Xiaoling Yu
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  7. Ming Peng
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Correspondence to Ming Peng.

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Wei Wen and Baiming Cui contributed equally to this work.

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Wen, W., Cui, B., Yu, X. et al. Functional Analysis of Cotton DELLA-Like Genes that are Differentially Regulated during Fiber Development. Plant Mol Biol Rep 30, 1014–1024 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11105-012-0412-z

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