Evolution of AITR family genes in cotton and their functions in abiotic stress tolerance

Abiotic stresses are major environmental factors inhibiting plant growth and development. AITRs (ABA‐induced transcription repressors) are a novel family of transcription factors regulating ABA (abscisic acid) signalling and plant responses to abiotic stresses in Arabidopsis. However, the compositio...

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Published in:Plant biology (Stuttgart, Germany) Germany), 2021-05, Vol.23 (S1), p.58-68
Main Authors: Wang, T., Dong, Q., Wang, W., Chen, S., Cheng, Y., Tian, H., Li, X., Hussain, S., Wang, L., Gong, L., Wang, S., Sperotto, R.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
ABA
Abiotic stress
Abscisic acid
Arabidopsis
Cotton
Diploids
Drought resistance
Environmental factors
Evolution
Evolutionary genetics
Genes
Genomes
GhAITRs
Gossypium
Homology
Phylogeny
Plant growth
Repressors
Reproduction (copying)
Speciation
Stress
Stresses
transcription factor
Transcription factors
Transgenic plants
whole genome duplication
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Summary:Abiotic stresses are major environmental factors inhibiting plant growth and development. AITRs (ABA‐induced transcription repressors) are a novel family of transcription factors regulating ABA (abscisic acid) signalling and plant responses to abiotic stresses in Arabidopsis. However, the composition and evolution history of AITRs and their roles in the cotton genus are largely unknown. A total of 12 putative AITRs genes were identified in cultivated tetraploid cotton, Gossypium hirsutum. Phylogenetic analysis of GhAITRs in these tetraploid cottons and their closely related species implicate ancient genome‐wide duplication occurring after speciation of Gossypium, and Theobroma could generate duplicates of GhAITRs. Duplicated GhAITRs were stably inherited following diploid speciation and further allotetraploidy in Gossypium. Homologous GhAITRs shared common expression patterns in response to ABA, drought and salinity treatments, and drought tolerance induced in transgenic Arabidopsis plants expressing GhAITR‐A1. Together, our findings reveal that duplicates in the GhAITRs gene family were achieved by whole genome duplication rather than three individual duplication events, and that GhAITRs function as transcription repressors and are involved in the regulation of plant responses to ABA and drought stress. These results provide insights towards the improvement of abiotic stress tolerance in cotton using GhAITRs. Functions of AITRss in regulating plant abiotic stress tolerance are evolutionarily conserved in cotton.
ISSN:1435-8603
1438-8677
DOI:10.1111/plb.13218