Abstract
Ovate family proteins (OFPs) are a family of plant growth regulators that play diverse roles in many aspects of physiological processes. OFPs have been characterized in various plant species including tomato, Arabidopsis, and rice. However, little is known about OFPs in woody species. Here, a total of 30 PtOFP genes were identified from the genome of Populus trichocarpa and were further grouped into four subfamilies based on their sequence similarities. Gene expression analysis indicated that some members of the PtOFP gene family displayed tissue/organ-specific patterns. Analysis of cis-acting elements in the promoter as well as gene expression by hormone treatment revealed putative involvement of PtOFPs in hormonal response. Furthermore, PtOFP1 (Potri.006G107700) was further experimentally demonstrated to act as a transcriptional repressor. Yeast two-hybrid assay showed physical interactions of PtOFP1 with other proteins, which suggests that they might function in various cellular processes by forming protein complexes. In addition, overexpression of PtOFP1 in Arabidopsis conferred enhanced tolerance to PEG-induced drought stress at seedling stage, as well as a higher survival rate than the wild type at mature stage. These results provide a systematic analysis of the Populus OFP gene family and lay a foundation for functional characterization of this gene family.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Article number | 650109 |
| Journal | Frontiers in Plant Science |
| Volume | 12 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - Apr 20 2021 |
Funding
This work was supported by the Center for Bioenergy Innovation and the Genomics-Enabled Plant Biology for Determination of Gene Function program by the Office of Biological and Environmental Research in the U.S. Department of Energy Office of Science. Oak Ridge National Laboratory is managed by UT-Battelle, LLC, for the United States Department of Energy under contract DE-AC05-00OR22725. HW was supported by a scholarship from the China Scholarship Council. We thank Lee E. Gunter, Sara S. Jawdy, and Wendy Schackwitz for technical assistance, and Dr. Meng Xie for providing transactivator and reporter constructs used in the protoplast transfection assays. Funding. This work was supported by the Center for Bioenergy Innovation and the Genomics-Enabled Plant Biology for Determination of Gene Function program by the Office of Biological and Environmental Research in the U.S. Department of Energy Office of Science. Oak Ridge National Laboratory is managed by UT-Battelle, LLC, for the United States Department of Energy under contract DE-AC05-00OR22725. HW was supported by a scholarship from the China Scholarship Council.
Keywords
- Arabidopsis
- OFP
- Populus trichocarpa
- drought stress
- transcription factor