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Transcriptome-based identification and expression profiling of AP2/ERF members in Caragana intermedia and functional analysis of CiDREB3

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Abstract

Background

The AP2/ERF transcription factor family plays important roles in regulation of plant growth and development as well as the response of plants to stress. However, there are currently few studies focusing on the function of the AP2/ERF-type transcription factors in Caragana intermedia Kuang et H. C. Fu. Here, the expression pattern of AP2/ERF transcription factors family in different tissues and under four stress treatments were evaluated, and the function of CiDREB3 was examined.

Methods and results

In this study, the genes encoding the AP2/ERF family of transcription factors were screened from the C. intermedia drought transcriptome database and subjected to bioinformatic analysis using the online tool and software. The expression pattern of the members of AP2/ERF transcription factors in C. intermedia were detected via quantitative real-time PCR (qRT-PCR). The function of CiDREB3 on growth, development and drought tolerance was evaluated by transgenic Arabidopsis. As a result, 22 sequences with complete ORFs were obtained and all sequences were divided into 13 sub-groups. Most of the AP2/ERF transcription factors exhibited tissue-specific expression and were induced by cold, heat, NaCl and mannitol treatments. Furthermore, heterologous expression of CiDREB3 altered the morphology of the transgenic Arabidopsis thaliana L. Heynh and improved its drought tolerance during seedlings development.

Conclusions

Taken together, the results of the present study helped to better understand the function of the AP2/ERF family transcription factors in response to multiple abiotic stresses and uncovered the role of CiDREB3 in affecting the morphology and abiotic stress tolerance of Arabidopsis.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by grant from National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant Numbers: 31560199).

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  1. Kun Liu, Qi Yang and Tianrui Yang have contributed equally to this work.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. College of Agronomy, Inner Mongolia Agricultural University, Hohhot, 010019, People’s Republic of China

    Kun Liu

  2. Inner Mongolia Key Laboratory of Plant Stress Physiology and Molecular Biology, College of Life Sciences, Inner Mongolia Agricultural University, 29 East Erdos Street, Saihan District, Hohhot, 010018, People’s Republic of China

    Kun Liu, Qi Yang, Tianrui Yang, Feiyun Yang, Ruigang Wang, Jingyu Cong & Guojing Li

  3. College of Food Sciences and Engineering, Inner Mongolia Agricultural University, Hohhot, 010018, People’s Republic of China

    Feiyun Yang

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Contributions

GL and QY conceived and designed the research. KL and TY participated in the experiment and data collection together. QY and KL contributed new reagents or analytical tools. KL, QY and FY analyzed the data. KL wrote first draft of the manuscript. JC and RW guided the writing and modification of the paper. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

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Correspondence to Jingyu Cong or Guojing Li.

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Liu, K., Yang, Q., Yang, T. et al. Transcriptome-based identification and expression profiling of AP2/ERF members in Caragana intermedia and functional analysis of CiDREB3. Mol Biol Rep 48, 7953–7965 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11033-021-06826-8

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