AUTHOR=Zhang Zhou , Gangurde Sunil S. , Chen Songbin , Mandlik Rushil Ramesh , Liu Haiyan , Deshmukh Rupesh , Xu Jialing , Wu Zhongkang , Hong Yanbin , Li Yin 

TITLE=Overexpression of peanut (Arachis hypogaea L.) AhGRFi gene enhanced root growth inhibition under exogenous NAA treatment in Arabidopsis thaliana

JOURNAL=Frontiers in Plant Science

VOLUME=14

YEAR=2023

URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/plant-science/articles/10.3389/fpls.2023.1184058

DOI=10.3389/fpls.2023.1184058

ISSN=1664-462X

ABSTRACT=<p>The 14-3-3 protein is a kind of evolutionary ubiquitous protein family highly conserved in eukaryotes. Initially, 14-3-3 proteins were reported in mammalian nervous tissues, but in the last decade, their role in various metabolic pathways in plants established the importance of 14-3-3 proteins. In the present study, a total of 22 <italic>14-3-3</italic> genes, also called general regulatory factors (<italic>GRF</italic>), were identified in the peanut (<italic>Arachis hypogaea</italic>) genome, out of which 12 belonged to the ε group, whereas 10 of them belonged to the non- ε-group. Tissue-specific expression of identified <italic>14-3-3</italic> genes were studied using transcriptome analysis. The peanut <italic>AhGRFi</italic> gene was cloned and transformed into <italic>Arabidopsis thaliana</italic>. The investigation of subcellular localization indicated that <italic>AhGRFi</italic> is localized in the cytoplasm. Overexpression of the <italic>AhGRFi</italic> gene in transgenic <italic>Arabidopsis</italic> showed that under exogenous 1-naphthaleneacetic acid (NAA) treatment, root growth inhibition in transgenic plants was enhanced. Further analysis indicated that the expression of auxin-responsive genes <italic>IAA3</italic>, <italic>IAA7</italic>, <italic>IAA17</italic>, and <italic>SAUR-AC1</italic> was upregulated and <italic>GH3.2</italic> and <italic>GH3.3</italic> were downregulated in transgenic plants, but the expression of <italic>GH3.2</italic>, <italic>GH3.3</italic>, and <italic>SAUR-AC1</italic> showed opposite trends of change under NAA treatment. These results suggest that <italic>AhGRFi</italic> may be involved in auxin signaling during seedling root development. An in-depth study of the molecular mechanism of this process remains to be further explored.</p>