Abstract
Cotton fiber is an extremely long plant cell. Fiber elongation is a complex process and the genes that are crucial for elongation are largely unknown. We previously cloned a cDNA encoding an isoform of cotton profilin and found that the gene (designated GhPFN1) was preferentially expressed in cotton fibers. In the present study, we have further analyzed the expression pattern of GhPFN1 during fiber development and studied its cellular function using tobacco suspension cells as an experimental system. We report that expression of GhPFN1 is tightly associated with fast elongation of cotton fibers whose growth requires an intact actin cytoskeleton. Overexpression of GhPFN1 in the transgenic tobacco cells was correlated with the formation of elongated cells that contained thicker and longer microfilament cables. Quantitative analyses revealed a 2.5–3.6 fold increase in total profilin levels and a 1.6–2.6 fold increase in the F-actin levels in six independent transgenic lines. In addition to the effect on cell elongation, we also observed delayed cell cycle progression and a slightly lower mitotic index in the transgenic cells. Based on these data, we propose that GhPFN1 may play a critical role in the rapid elongation of cotton fibers by promoting actin polymerization.
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Abbreviations
- 35S:
-
Cauliflower mosaic virus 35S promoter
- CD:
-
Cytochalasin D
- DPA:
-
Day post anthesis
- GhPFN1 :
-
Gossypium hirsutum profilin 1 gene
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Acknowledgements
We thank Dr. Hai-Yun Ren (Beijing Normal University) for kindly providing profilin and actin antibodies and Mr. Guang-Jun Dong (the New Bio-technique Center in Institute of Microbiology, the Chinese Academy of Sciences) for help with the confocal microscopic analysis. This work is supported by the National Basic Research Priorities Program (Grant No 2002CCA03000), the National Special Program for Research and Industrialization of Transgenic Plants (Grant No JY03-A-04-02) and the Oriented Projects of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (Grant No KSCXZ-SW-325).
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Hai-Yun Wang and Yi Yu contributed equally to this work.
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Wang, HY., Yu, Y., Chen, ZL. et al. Functional characterization of Gossypium hirsutum profilin 1 gene (GhPFN1) in tobacco suspension cells. Planta 222, 594–603 (2005). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00425-005-0005-2
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00425-005-0005-2