Characterization and stress-induced expression analysis of Alfin-like transcription factors in Brassica rapa

• Published in: Molecular genetics and genomics : MGG Vol. 290; no. 4; pp. 1299 - 1311
• Main Authors: Kayum, Md. Abdul, Park, Jong-In, Ahmed, Nasar Uddin, Jung, Hee-Jeong, Saha, Gopal, Kang, Jong-Goo, Nou, Ill-Sup
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Berlin/Heidelberg Springer Berlin Heidelberg 01.08.2015; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: Abiotic stress; Amino Acid Sequence; Animal Genetics and Genomics; Arabidopsis thaliana; Biochemistry; Biomedical and Life Sciences; Brassica - drug effects; Brassica - genetics; Brassica - microbiology; Brassica rapa; Chromosome Mapping; Chromosomes, Plant - genetics; Cold; Cold Temperature; Droughts; Exons; Flowers & plants; Fusarium - physiology; Fusarium oxysporum; Gene Expression Profiling; Gene Expression Regulation, Plant; Genomics; Human Genetics; Infections; Introns; Leaves; Life Sciences; Microbial Genetics and Genomics; Molecular Sequence Data; Multigene Family; Original Paper; Pectobacterium; Pectobacterium carotovorum - physiology; Phylogenetics; Phylogeny; Plant Diseases - genetics; Plant Diseases - microbiology; Plant Genetics and Genomics; Plant Proteins - classification; Plant Proteins - genetics; Proteins; Reverse Transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction; Sequence Homology, Amino Acid; Sodium Chloride - pharmacology; Stress, Physiological - genetics; Transcription factors; Transcription Factors - classification; Transcription Factors - genetics; Alfin-like; Biotic stress; Abiotic stresses
• ISSN: 1617-4615; 1617-4623
• DOI: 10.1007/s00438-015-0993-y

The Alfin-like (AL) transcription factors (TFs) family is involved in many developmental processes, including the growth and development of roots, root hair elongation, meristem development, etc. However, stress resistance-related function and the regulatory mechanism of these TFs have yet to be elucidated. This study identified 15 Brassica rapa AL (BrAL) TFs from BRAD database, analyzed the sequences and profiled their expression first time in response to Fusarium oxysporum f. sp. conglutinans and Pectobacterium carotovorum subsp. carotovorum in fection, cold, salt and drought stresses in B. rapa. Structural and phylogenetic analyses of 15 BrAL TFs revealed four distinct groups (groups I–IV) with AL TFs of Arabidopsis thaliana. In the expression analyses, ten BrAL TFs showed responsive expression after F. oxysporum f. sp. conglutinans infection, while all BrAL TFs showed responses under cold, salt and drought stresses in B. rapa. Interestingly, ten BrAL TFs showed responses to both biotic and abiotic stress factors tested here. The differentially expressed BrAL TFs thus represent potential resources for molecular breeding of Brassica crops resistant against abiotic and biotic stresses. Our findings will also help to elucidate the complex regulatory mechanism of AL TFs in stress resistance and provide a foundation for further functional genomics studies and applications.