Auxin is well recognized for its involvement in several developmental processes like floral and leaf development and shoot elongation. The transcriptional regulation of auxin-responsive genes is mediated via auxin response factors (ARF). In this study, we identified 46 ARF genes in Nicotiana tabacum, performed phylogenetic analysis and investigated their structure, conserved domains, and motifs. Our results demonstrate that some of NtARF genes are regulated by mi-RNAs and expression in multiple tobacco tissues. Additionally, the leaf NtARFs display a diverse expression pattern in vein and shoot apical meristem in response to exogenous auxin stimulus. Transgenic NtARF10-overexpressing Arabidopsis plants exhibit larger leave areas, cell area, and more numerous cell numbers compared to wild-type plants and include several upregulated genes involved in cell division and expansion, including AtCYCD3, AtTCP1, AtTCP20, AtXTH33, and AtARGOS. This suggests NtARF10 might play a role in the regulation of leaf size. Our study contributes to a better understanding of the characteristics of the ARF family in tobacco and provides a basis for further functional research into NtARFs.

生长素因参与多种发育过程而广为人知，例如花卉和叶片发育以及枝条伸长。生长素应答基因的转录调控是通过生长素应答因子（ARF）介导的。在这项研究中，我们鉴定了烟草中的46个ARF基因，进行了系统发育分析，并研究了它们的结构，保守结构域和基序。我们的结果表明，某些NtARF基因受mi-RNA调控并在多种烟草组织中表达。另外，叶片NtARFs在静脉中显示出多种表达模式，并响应于外源性生长素刺激而射出根尖分生组织。转基因NtARF10-过表达拟南芥与野生型植物相比，植物具有更大的叶子面积，细胞面积和更多的细胞数量，并且包括与细胞分裂和扩增有关的几个上调基因，包括AtCYCD3，AtTCP1，AtTCP20，AtXTH33和AtARGOS。这表明NtARF10可能在调节叶片大小中起作用。我们的研究有助于更好地了解烟草中ARF家族的特征，并为进一步研究NtARFs提供了基础。