Genome-wide identification and expression analysis of the growth regulating factor (GRF) family in Jatropha curcas

Abstract

GRF genes have been confirmed to have important regulatory functions in plant growth, development and response to abiotic stress. Although the genome of Jatropha curcas is sequenced, knowledge about the identification of the species’ GRF genes and their expression patterns is still lacking. In this study, we characterized the 10 JcGRF genes. A detailed investigation into the physic nut GRF gene family is performed, including analysis of the exon-intron structure, conserved domains, conserved motifs, phylogeny, chromosomal locations, potential small RNA targets and expression profiles under both normal growth and abiotic stress conditions. Phylogenetic analysis indicated that the 10 JcGRF genes were classified into five groups corresponding to group I, II, III, IV and V. The analysis of conserved domains showed that the motifs of JcGRF genes were highly conserved in Jatropha curcas. Expression analysis based on RNA-seq and qRT-PCR showed that almost all JcGRF genes had the highest expression in seeds, but very low expression was detected in the non-seed tissues tested, and four JcGRF genes responded to at least one abiotic stress at at least one treatment point. Our research will provide an important scientific basis for further research on the potential functions of JcGRF genes in Jatropha curcas growth and development, and response to abiotic stress, and will eventually provide candidate genes for the breeding of Jatropha curcas.

Genome-wide identification of growth-regulating factor transcription factor family related to leaf and stem development in alfalfa

“…The expression of MsGRFs in various tissues plays an important role in growth and development. It has been demonstrated in previous studies that the GRF gene family is strongly expressed in young tissues and weakly expressed in mature tissues ( Zhang et al, 2008 ; Khatun et al, 2017 ; Zheng et al, 2018 ; Zhou et al, 2018 ; Zan et al, 2020 ; Tang et al, 2021 ). In this study, the expression patterns of the MsGRF family were similar in leaves and stems, with high expression in young stems and leaves, which decreased with growth and development ( Figure 7 ).…”

Genome-wide identification and expression profile ofGhGRFgene family inGossypium hirsutum L.

“…The GRF family is universally present in many plant taxa. For example, nine GRF family in Arabidopsis ( Kim, Choi & Kende, 2003 ), 12 in Oryza sativa ( Choi, Kim & Kende, 2004 ), 14 in Zea mays ( Zhang et al, 2008 ), 10 in Brachypodium distachyon ( Fi̇li̇z, Koc & Tombuloğlu, 2014 ), 17 in Brassica rapa ( Wang et al, 2014a ), eight in Vitis vinifera, 19 in Populus trichocarpa ( Cao et al, 2016 ), 10 in Fragaria vesca ( Li et al, 2021 ), 10 in Jatropha curcas ( Tang et al, 2021 ), and 25 in Nicotiana tabacum ( Zhang et al, 2018 ).…”

Genome-Wide Analysis of the Growth-Regulating Factor (GRF) Family in Aquatic Plants and Their Roles in the ABA-Induced Turion Formation of Spirodela polyrhiza

“…Growth-regulating factors (GRFs) are plant-specific transcription factors, which regulate cell proliferation and expansion and play important roles in plant development and environmental response [ 1 , 2 ]. The GRF family proteins contain the following two conserved regions: the QLQ and the WRC domains [ 3 ]. The QLQ domain functions as a protein–protein interaction domain, which interacts with the conserved structure of other proteins to perform transcriptional activation [ 4 , 5 ].…”