Key auxin response factor (ARF) genes constraining wheat tillering of mutant dmc

Junchang Li; Yumei Jiang; Jing Zhang; Yongjing Ni; Zhixin Jiao; Huijuan Li; Ting Wang; Peipei Zhang; Wenlong Guo; Lei Li; Hongjie Liu; Hairong Zhang; Qiaoyun Li; Jishan Niu

doi:10.7717/peerj.12221

Key auxin response factor (ARF) genes constraining wheat tillering of mutant dmc

PeerJ. 2021 Sep 21:9:e12221. doi: 10.7717/peerj.12221. eCollection 2021.

Authors

Junchang Li^#¹, Yumei Jiang^#¹, Jing Zhang¹, Yongjing Ni², Zhixin Jiao¹, Huijuan Li¹, Ting Wang¹, Peipei Zhang¹, Wenlong Guo¹, Lei Li¹, Hongjie Liu², Hairong Zhang³, Qiaoyun Li¹, Jishan Niu¹

Affiliations

¹ National Centre of Engineering and Technological Research for Wheat/National Key Laboratory of Wheat and Maize Crop Science, Henan Agricultural University, Zhengzhou, Henan, China.
² Shangqiu Academy of Agricultural and Forestry Sciences, Shangqiu, Henan, China.
³ College of Life Sciences, Henan Agricultural University, Zhengzhou, Henan, China.

^# Contributed equally.

Abstract

Tillering ability is a key agronomy trait for wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) production. Studies on a dwarf monoculm wheat mutant (dmc) showed that ARF11 played an important role in tillering of wheat. In this study, a total of 67 ARF family members were identified and clustered to two main classes with four subgroups based on their protein structures. The promoter regions of T. aestivum ARF (TaARF) genes contain a large number of cis-acting elements closely related to plant growth and development, and hormone response. The segmental duplication events occurred commonly and played a major role in the expansion of TaARFs. The gene collinearity degrees of the ARFs between wheat and other grasses, rice and maize, were significantly high. The evolution distances among TaARFs determine their expression profiles, such as homoeologous genes have similar expression profiles, like TaARF4-3A-1, TaARF4-3A-2 and their homoeologous genes. The expression profiles of TaARFs in various tissues or organs indicated TaARF3, TaARF4, TaARF9 and TaARF22 and their homoeologous genes played basic roles during wheat development. TaARF4, TaARF9, TaARF12, TaARF15, TaARF17, TaARF21, TaARF25 and their homoeologous genes probably played basic roles in tiller development. qRT-PCR analyses of 20 representative TaARF genes revealed that the abnormal expressions of TaARF11 and TaARF14 were major causes constraining the tillering of dmc. Indole-3-acetic acid (IAA) contents in dmc were significantly less than that in Guomai 301 at key tillering stages. Exogenous IAA application significantly promoted wheat tillering, and affected the transcriptions of TaARFs. These data suggested that TaARFs as well as IAA signaling were involved in controlling wheat tillering. This study provided valuable clues for functional characterization of ARFs in wheat.

Keywords: Auxin response factor; Expression profiles; IAA; Tillering; Wheat (Triticum aestivum L.).

Grants and funding

This study was supported by the National Key R & D Program of China (2017YFD0301101), the Science and Technology Project in Henan Province (212102110060) and the open project fund of National Key Laboratory of Wheat and Maize Crop Science, Henan Agricultural University (2020). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.