Search Results (9)

The Actin Depolymerizing Factor (ADF) protein, highly conserved among eukaryotes, is essential for plant growth, development, and stress responses. Cotton, a vital economic crop with applications spanning oilseed, textiles, and military sectors, has seen a limited exploration of its ADF gene family. This research has identified 118 unique ADF sequences across four principal cotton species: Gossypium hirsutum L., Gossypium barbadense Linn, Gossypium raimondii, and Asiatic cotton. The study found that the structural domains and physicochemical properties of these proteins are largely uniform across species. The ADF genes were classified into four subfamilies with a notable expansion in groups III and IV due to tandem and chromosomal duplication events. A thorough analysis revealed a high degree of conservation in gene structure, including exon counts and the lengths of introns and exons, with the majority of genes containing three exons, aligning with the characteristics of the ADF family. RNA-seq analysis uncovered a spectrum of responses by GhADFs to various abiotic stresses with GhADF19 showing the most significant reaction. Virus-induced gene silencing (VIGS) experiments were conducted to assess the role of GhADF19 in plant growth under abiotic stress. The results demonstrated that plants with silenced GhADF19 exhibited significantly slower growth rates and lower dry weights when subjected to cold, salt, and drought stress compared to the control group. This marked reduction in growth and dry weight under stress conditions highlights the potential importance of GhADF19 in stress tolerance mechanisms. Full article

Angelica dahurica var. formosana (ADF), which belongs to the Umbelliferae family, is one of the original plants of herbal raw material Angelicae Dahuricae Radix. ADF roots represent an enormous biomass resource convertible for disease treatment and bioproducts. But, early bolting of ADF resulted in lignification and a decrease in the coumarin content in the root, and roots lignification restricts its coumarin for commercial utility. Although there have been attempts to regulate the synthesis ratio of lignin and coumarin through biotechnology to increase the coumarin content in ADF and further enhance its commercial value, optimizing the biosynthesis of lignin and coumarin remains challenging. Based on gene expression analysis and phylogenetic tree profiling, AdNAC20 as the target for genetic engineering of lignin and coumarin biosynthesis in ADF was selected in this study. Early-bolting ADF had significantly greater degrees of root lignification and lower coumarin contents than that of the normal plants. In this study, overexpression of AdNAC20 gene plants were created using transgenic technology, while independent homozygous transgenic lines with precise site mutation of AdNAC20 were created using CRISPR/Cas9 technology. The overexpressing transgenic ADF plants showed a 9.28% decrease in total coumarin content and a significant 12.28% increase in lignin content, while knockout mutant plants showed a 16.3% increase in total coumarin content and a 33.48% decrease in lignin content. Furthermore, 29,671 differentially expressed genes (DEGs) were obtained by comparative transcriptomics of OE-NAC20, KO-NAC20, and WT of ADF. A schematic diagram of the gene network interacting with AdNAC20 during the early-bolting process of ADF was constructed by DEG analysis. AdNAC20 was predicted to directly regulate the transcription of several genes with SNBE-like motifs in their promoter, such as MYB46, C3H, and CCoAOMT. In this study, AdNAC20 was shown to play a dual pathway function that positively enhanced lignin formation but negatively controlled coumarin formation. And the heterologous expression of the AdNAC20 gene at Arabidopsis thaliana proved that the AdNAC20 gene also plays an important role in the process of bolting and flowering. Full article

The highly conserved actin depolymerizing factor (ADF) plays an important role in plant growth, development and responses to biotic and abiotic stresses. A total of 72 ADF genes in Arabidopsis, wheat, rice and sorghum can be divided into four groups. The multicollinearity analysis revealed that the maize ADF gene family exhibited more collinearity events with closely related gramineous plants. Fifteen ADF genes in maize were screened from the latest database, and bioinformatics analysis showed that these ADF genes were distributed across seven chromosomes in maize. The gene structure of the ADF gene family in maize exhibits significant conservation and cluster consistency. The promoter region contains rich regulatory elements that are involved in various regulations related to growth, development and adverse stresses. The drought-tolerant ZmADF5 gene in maize was further studied, and it was found that the allelic variations in ZmADF5 were mainly concentrated in its promoter region. A superior haplotype, with drought tolerance, was identified by candidate-gene association analysis of 115 inbred lines. By comparing the phenotypes of anthesis silking interval, grain yield and ear height, it was found that Hap2 performed better than Hap1 under drought stress. This study provides a theoretical reference for understanding the function of the ADF gene family and proposes further investigation into the role of ZmADF5 in abiotic-stress tolerance. Full article

Drought stress is seriously affecting the growth and production of crops, especially when agricultural irrigation still remains quantitatively restricted in some arid and semi-arid areas. The identification of drought-tolerant genes is important for improving the adaptability of maize under stress. Here, we found that a new member of the actin-depolymerizing factor (ADF) family; the ZmADF5 gene was tightly linked with a consensus drought-tolerant quantitative trait locus, and the significantly associated signals were detected through genome wide association analysis. ZmADF5 expression could be induced by osmotic stress and the application of exogenous abscisic acid. Its overexpression in Arabidopsis and maize helped plants to keep a higher survival rate after water-deficit stress, which reduced the stomatal aperture and the water-loss rate, as well as improved clearance of reactive oxygen species. Moreover, seventeen differentially expressed genes were identified as regulated by both drought stress and ZmADF5, four of which were involved in the ABA-dependent drought stress response. ZmADF5-overexpressing plants were also identified as sensitive to ABA during the seed germination and seedling stages. These results suggested that ZmADF5 played an important role in the response to drought stress. Full article

Drosophila CP190 and CP60 are transcription factors that are associated with centrosomes during mitosis. CP190 is an essential transcription factor and preferentially binds to housekeeping gene promoters and insulators through interactions with architectural proteins, including Su(Hw) and dCTCF. CP60 belongs to a family of transcription factors that contain the N-terminal MADF domain and the C-terminal BESS domain, which is characterized by the ability to homodimerize. In this study, we show that the conserved CP60 region adjacent to MADF is responsible for interacting with CP190. In contrast to the well-characterized MADF-BESS transcriptional activator Adf-1, CP60 is recruited to most chromatin sites through its interaction with CP190, and the MADF domain is likely involved in protein–protein interactions but not in DNA binding. The deletion of the Map60 gene showed that CP60 is not an essential protein, despite the strong and ubiquitous expression of CP60 at all stages of Drosophila development. Although CP60 is a stable component of the Su(Hw) insulator complex, the inactivation of CP60 does not affect the enhancer-blocking activity of the Su(Hw)-dependent gypsy insulator. Overall, our results indicate that CP60 has an important but redundant function in transcriptional regulation as a partner of the CP190 protein. Full article

The actin-depolymerizing factor (ADF) gene family regulates changes in actin. However, the entire ADF family in the sweet orange Citrus sinensis has not been systematically identified, and their expressions in different organs and biotic stress have not been determined. In this study, through phylogenetic analysis of the sweet orange ADF gene family, seven CsADFs were found to be highly conserved and sparsely distributed across the four chromosomes. Analysis of the cis-regulatory elements in the promoter region showed that the CsADF gene had the potential to impact the development of sweet oranges under biotic or abiotic stress. Quantitative fluorescence analysis was then performed. Seven CsADFs were differentially expressed against the invasion of Xcc and CLas pathogens. It is worth noting that the expression of CsADF4 was significantly up-regulated at 4 days post-infection. Subcellular localization results showed that CsADF4 was localized in both the nucleus and the cytoplasm. Overexpression of CsADF4 enhanced the sensitivity of sweet orange leaves to Xcc. These results suggest that CsADFs may regulate the interaction of C. sinensis and bacterial pathogens, providing a way to further explore the function and mechanisms of ADF in the sweet orange. Full article

Deafness due to mutations in the DFNA5 gene is caused by the aberrant splicing of exon 8, which results in a constitutively active truncated protein. In a large family of European descent (MORL-ADF1) segregating autosomal dominant nonsyndromic hearing loss, we used the OtoSCOPE platform to identify the genetic cause of deafness. After variant filtering and prioritization, the only remaining variant that segregated with the hearing loss in the family was the previously described c.991-15_991-13delTTC mutation in DFNA5. This 3-base pair deletion in the polypyrimidine of intron 7 is a founder mutation in the East Asian population. Using ethnicity-informative markers and haplotype reconstruction within the DFNA5 gene, we confirmed family MORL-ADF1 is of European ancestry, and that the c.991-15_991-13delTTC mutation arose on a unique haplotype, as compared to that of East Asian families segregating this mutation. In-depth audiometric analysis showed no statistical difference between the audiometric profile of family MORL-ADF1 and the East Asian families. Our data suggest the polypyrimidine tract in intron 7 may be a hotspot for mutations. Full article

Actin-depolymerizing factor (ADF) is a small class of actin-binding proteins that regulates the dynamics of actin in cells. Moreover, it is well known that the plant ADF family plays key roles in growth, development and defense-related functions. Results: Thirteen maize (Zea mays L., ZmADFs) ADF genes were identified using Hidden Markov Model. Phylogenetic analysis indicated that the 36 identified ADF genes in Physcomitrella patens, Arabidopsis thaliana, Oryza sativa japonica, and Zea mays were clustered into five groups. Four pairs of segmental genes were found in the maize ADF gene family. The tissue-specific expression of ZmADFs and OsADFs was analyzed using microarray data obtained from the Maize and Rice eFP Browsers. Five ZmADFs (ZmADF1/2/7/12/13) from group V exhibited specifically high expression in tassel, pollen, and anther. The expression patterns of 13 ZmADFs in seedlings under five abiotic stresses were analyzed using qRT-PCR, and we found that the ADFs mainly responded to heat, salt, drought, and ABA. Conclusions: In our study, we identified ADF genes in maize and analyzed the gene structure and phylogenetic relationships. The results of expression analysis demonstrated that the expression level of ADF genes was diverse in various tissues and different stimuli, including abiotic and phytohormone stresses, indicating their different roles in plant growth, development, and response to external stimulus. This report extends our knowledge to understand the function of ADF genes in maize. Full article

The actin depolymerizing factor (ADF) proteins have growth, development, defense-related and growth regulatory functions in plants. The present study used genome-wide analysis to investigate ADF family genes in tomato. Eleven tomato ADF genes were identified and differential expression patterns were found in different organs. SlADF6 was preferentially expressed in roots, suggesting its function in root development. SlADF1, SlADF3 and SlADF10 were predominately expressed in the flowers compared to the other organs and specifically in the stamen compared to other flower parts, indicating their potential roles in pollen development. The comparatively higher expression of SlADF3 and SlADF11 at early fruit developmental stages might implicate them in determining final fruit size. SlADF5 and SlADF8 had relatively higher levels of expression five days after the breaker stage of fruit development, suggesting their possible role in fruit ripening. Notably, six genes were induced by cold and heat, seven by drought, five by NaCl, and four each by abscisic acid (ABA), jasmonic acid (JA) and wounding treatments. The differential expression patterns of the SlADF genes under different types of stresses suggested their function in stress tolerance in tomato plants. Our results will be helpful for the functional characterization of ADF genes during organ and fruit development of tomato under different stresses. Full article