title: Isolation and characterization of ethylene response factor family genes during development, ethylene regulation and stress treatments in papaya fruit.
abstract: Ethylene response factors (ERFs) play important roles in fruit development, ripening, defense responses and stress signaling pathways. After harvest, climacteric fruit such as papaya are subject to a range of problems associated with postharvest handling and storage treatments. There have been few attempts to evaluate the role of ERFs in fruit's responses to environmental stimuli. To investigate the transcriptional mechanisms underlying fruit developmental, ripening and stresses, we cloned four ERFs from papaya. The deduced amino acid sequence of CpERFs contained the conserved apetalous (AP2)/ERF domain, which shared high similarity with other reported AP2/ERF domains. The phylogeny, gene structures, and putatively conserved motifs in papaya ERF proteins were analyzed, and compared with those of Arabidopsis. Expression patterns of CpERFs were examined during fruit development, under 1-MCP treatment, ethephon treatment, biotic stress (temperature stress) and pathogen stress. CpERFs displayed differential expression patterns and expression levels under different experimental conditions. CpERF2 and CpERF3 showed a close association with fruit ripening and CpERFs had a high expression level in the earlier stages during the fruit development period. The expression of CpERFs strongly associated with stress response. These results support the role for papaya ERFs in transcriptional regulation of ripening-related or stress-respond genes and thus, in the regulation of papaya fruit-ripening processes and stress responses.
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory for Conservation and Utilization of Subtropical Agro-Bioresources/Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory for Postharvest Science and Technology of Fruits and Vegetables, College of Horticulture, South China Agricultural University, Guangzhou 510642, PR China. lxp280477@yahoo.cn
authors.forename: Xueping
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Li
authors.forename: Xiaoyang
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Zhu
authors.forename: Jia
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Mao
authors.forename: Yuan
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Zou
authors.forename: Danwen
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Fu
authors.forename: Weixin
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.forename: Wangjin
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Lu
mesh_terms: D000222:Adaptation, Physiological / Q000235:genetics; D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D029441:Carica / Q000235:genetics* / Q000378:metabolism; D005030:Ethylenes / Q000378:metabolism*; D005638:Fruit / Q000254:growth & development / Q000378:metabolism*; D018506:Gene Expression Regulation, Plant; D017343:Genes, Plant; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D005810:Multigene Family; D010802:Phylogeny; D063245:Plant Development / Q000235:genetics; D010940:Plant Proteins / Q000235:genetics* / Q000378:metabolism; D013312:Stress, Physiological / Q000235:genetics*; D014157:Transcription Factors / Q000378:metabolism*; D014158:Transcription, Genetic
chemical_list: D005030:Ethylenes; D010940:Plant Proteins; D014157:Transcription Factors; C036216:ethylene
keywords: Biotic and abiotic stress; Ethylene regulation; Ethylene response factors (ERFs); Gene expression; Papaya