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Plant function and evolutionary biology
RESEARCH ARTICLE

Identification of MdDof genes in apple and analysis of their response to biotic or abiotic stress

Qing Yang A , Qiuju Chen A , Yuandi Zhu A and Tianzhong Li A B
+ Author Affiliations
- Author Affiliations

A Laboratory of Fruit Cell and Molecular Breeding, China Agricultural University, Beijing 100193, China.

B Corresponding author. Email: litianzhong1535@163.com

Functional Plant Biology 45(5) 528-541 https://doi.org/10.1071/FP17288
Submitted: 17 August 2017  Accepted: 7 November 2017   Published: 19 December 2017

Abstract

As a classic plant-specific transcription factor family – the Dof domain proteins – are involved in a variety of biological processes in organisms ranging from unicellular Chlamydomonas to higher plants. However, there are limited reports of MdDof (Malus domestica Borkh. DNA-binding One Zinc Finger) domain proteins in fruit trees, especially in apple. In this study we identified 54 putative Dof transcription factors in the apple genome. We analysed the gene structures, protein motifs, and chromosome locations of each of the MdDof genes. Next, we characterised all 54 MdDofs their expression patterns under different abiotic and biotic stress conditions. It was found that MdDof6,26 not only played an important role in the biotic/abiotic stress but may also be involved in many molecular functions. Further, both in flower development and pollen tube growth it was found that the relative expression of MdDof24 increased rapidly, also with gene ontology analysis it was indicated that MdDof24 was involved in the chemical reaction and flower development pathways. Taken together, our results provide useful clues as to the function of MdDof genes in apple and serve as a reference for studies of Dof zinc finger genes in other plants.

Additional keywords: Dof (DNA-binding One Zinc Finger), flower development, gene expression, stress treatment, pollen tube.


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