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Genome-Wide Identification Analysis of the Auxin Response Factors Family in Nicotiana tabacum and the function of NtARF10 in Leaf Size Regulation

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Abstract

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.

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Funding

This work was supported by the Central Public-Interest Scientific Institution Basal Research Fund (No. Y2019PT13), the Agricultural Science and Technology Innovation Project of the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences (ASTIP-TRIC03), and the Central Public-Interest Scientific Institution Basal Research Fund (No. Y1610232017008).

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  1. Juan Zhang and Rayyan Khan have contributed equally to this work.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, Tobacco Research Institute, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Key Laboratory of Tobacco Biology and Processing, No.11 Keyuanjingsi Road, Laoshan Dist., Qingdao, 266101, China

    Juan Zhang, Rayyan Khan, Lei Zhou, Xiaoying Wu, Na Xu, Xinghua Ma & Yan Zhang

  2. Graduate School of Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Beijing, 100081, China

    Juan Zhang, Rayyan Khan, Lei Zhou, Xiaoying Wu & Yan Zhang

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  1. Juan Zhang
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  5. Na Xu
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Contributions

XM and YZ designed and supervised the experiment. JZ, RK, LZ performed the experiments. JZ and RK performed the analysis, wrote the manuscript, and contributed equally to this work. XW and NX helped in carrying out qRT-PCR experiments and contributed with valuable discussions. All authors have read and approved the final manuscript.

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Correspondence to Xinghua Ma or Yan Zhang.

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Zhang, J., Khan, R., Zhou, L. et al. Genome-Wide Identification Analysis of the Auxin Response Factors Family in Nicotiana tabacum and the function of NtARF10 in Leaf Size Regulation. J. Plant Biol. 64, 281–297 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12374-020-09292-0

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