title: Ectopic overexpression of wheat adenosine diphosphate-ribosylation factor, TaARF, increases growth rate in Arabidopsis.
abstract: Differential gene expression between hybrids and their parents is considered to be associated with heterosis. However, the physiological functions and possible contribution to heterosis of these differentially expressed genes are unknown. We have isolated one hybrid upregulated gene encoding putative wheat ADP-ribosylation factor, designated TaARF. In this study, real-time quantitative reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction analysis indicated that the TaARF transcript was preferentially expressed in root, node and crown, and the accumulation of TaARF mRNA in hybrid was more than 1.5-fold higher than that in two parents. In order to understand possible roles of the putative wheat ARF gene, TaARF was overexpressed in Arabidopsis, and the transgenic plants were characterized. We show that ectopic overexpression of TaARF in Arabidopsis leads to increased leaf area, increased growth rate and earlier transition to flowering, suggesting that TaARF plays significant roles in growth and development. This study provides evidence demonstrating that TaARF plays important roles in growth and development and we speculate that the upregulated expression of this gene might contribute to the heterosis observed in wheat root and leaf growth.
authors.affiliation: Department of Plant Genetics & Breeding and State Key Laboratory for Agrobiotechnology, Key Laboratory of Crop Heterosis and Utilization, Ministry of Education, China Agricultural University, Beijing, China.
authors.forename: Yingyin
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Yao
authors.forename: Zhongfu
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Ni
authors.forename: Jinkun
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Du
authors.forename: Zongfu
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Han
authors.forename: Yan
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.forename: Qingbo
authors.initials: Q
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.forename: Qixin
authors.initials: Q
authors.lastname: Sun
mesh_terms: D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D017360:Arabidopsis / Q000235:genetics / Q000254:growth & development*; D001483:Base Sequence; D020869:Gene Expression Profiling; D018506:Gene Expression Regulation, Plant; D017343:Genes, Plant; D006824:Hybridization, Genetic; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D010802:Phylogeny; D010940:Plant Proteins / Q000737:chemistry / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism*; D030821:Plants, Genetically Modified; D020133:Reverse Transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction; D017422:Sequence Analysis, DNA; D014908:Triticum / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism*
chemical_list: D010940:Plant Proteins