Identification of the Golden-2-like transcription factors gene family in Gossypium hirsutum

Zilin Zhao; Jiaran Shuang; Zhaoguo Li; Huimin Xiao; Yuling Liu; Tao Wang; Yangyang Wei; Shoulin Hu; Sumei Wan; Renhai Peng

doi:10.7717/peerj.12484

Identification of the Golden-2-like transcription factors gene family in Gossypium hirsutum

PeerJ. 2021 Nov 16:9:e12484. doi: 10.7717/peerj.12484. eCollection 2021.

Authors

Zilin Zhao^#^{1

2}, Jiaran Shuang^#², Zhaoguo Li², Huimin Xiao², Yuling Liu², Tao Wang², Yangyang Wei², Shoulin Hu¹, Sumei Wan¹, Renhai Peng^{1

2}

Affiliations

¹ College of Plant Science, Tarim University, Alar, Xinjiang, China.
² Anyang Institute of Technology, Anyang, Henan, China.

^# Contributed equally.

Abstract

Background: Golden2-Like (GLK) transcription factors are a type of transcriptional regulator in plants. They play a pivotal role in the plant physiological activity process and abiotic stress response.

Methods: In this study, the potential function of GLK family genes in Gossypium hirsutum was studied based on genomic identification, phylogenetic analysis, chromosome mapping and cis-regulatory elements prediction. Gene expression of nine key genes were analyzed by qRT-PCR experiments.

Results: Herein, we identified a total of 146 GhGLK genes in Gossypium hirsutum, which were unevenly distributed on each of the chromosomes. There were significant differences in the number and location of genes between the At sub-genome and the Dt sub-genome. According to the phylogenetic analysis, they were divided into ten subgroups, each of which had very similar number and structure of exons and introns. Some cis-regulatory elements were identified through promoter analysis, including five types of elements related to abiotic stress response, five types of elements related to phytohormone and five types of elements involved in growth and development. Based on public transcriptome data analysis, we identified nine key GhGLKs involved in salt, cold, and drought stress. The qRT-PCR results showed that these genes had different expression patterns under these stress conditions, suggesting that GhGLK genes played an important role in abiotic stress response. This study laid a theoretical foundation for the screening and functional verification of genes related to stress resistance of GLK gene family in cotton.

Keywords: Abiotic stress; Gene family; Golden2-like; Gossypium hirsutum; Phylogenetic analysis.

Grants and funding

This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 31471548), the Central Plains Science and Technology Innovation Leader Project (No. 214200510029) to Renhai Peng and the National Key Research and Development Program of China (No. 2018YFD0100302) to Yuling Liu. There was no additional external funding received for this study. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.