Functional analysis of GbAGL1, a D-lineage gene from cotton (Gossypium barbadense).

Cotton fibres originate from the outer ovule integument and D-lineage genes are essential for ovule development and their roles can be described by the 'ABCDE' model of flower development. To investigate the role of D-lineage genes during ovule and fibre development, GbAGL1 (GenBank accession number: FJ198049) was isolated from G. barbadense by using the SMART RACE strategy. Sequence and phylogenetic analyses revealed that GbAGL1 was a member of the D-lineage gene family. Southern blot analysis showed that GbAGL1 belonged to a low-copy gene family. Semi-quantitative RT-PCR and RNA in situ hybridization analyses revealed that the GbAGL1 gene in G. barbadense was highly expressed in whole floral bud primordia and the floral organs including ovules and fibres, but the signals were barely observed in vegetative tissues. GbAGL1 expression increased gradually with the ovule developmental stages. Over-expression of GbAGL1 in Arabidopsis caused obvious homeotic alternations in the floral organs, such as early flowering, and an extruded stigma, which were the typical phenotypes of the D-lineage gene family. In addition, a complementation test revealed that GbAGL1 could rescue the phenotypes of the stk mutant. Our study indicated that GbAGL1 was a D-lineage gene that was involved in ovule development and might play key roles in fibres development.

Over-expression GbERF2 transcription factor in tobacco enhances brown spots disease resistance by activating expression of downstream genes.

ERF transcription factors can bind GCC boxes or non-GCC cis elements to regulate biotic and abiotic stress responses. Here, we report that an ERF transcription factor gene (GbERF2) was cloned by suppression subtraction hybridization from sea-island cotton after Verticillium dahliae attack. The GbERF2 cDNA has a total length of 1143 bp with an open reading frame of 597 bp. The genomic sequence of GbERF2 contains an intron of 515 bp. The gene encodes a predicated polypeptide of 198 amino acids with a molecular weight of 22.5 kDa and a calculated pI of 9.82. The GbERF2 protein has a highly conserved ERF domain while the nucleotide and amino acid sequences have low homology with other ERF plant proteins. An RNA blot revealed that GbERF2 is constitutively expressed in different tissues, but is higher in the leaves. High levels of GbERF2 transcripts rapidly accumulated when the plants were exposed to exogenous ethylene treatment and V. dahliae infection, while there was only a slight accumulation in response to salt, cold, drought and water stresses. In contrast, GbERF2 transcripts declined in response to exogenous abscisic acid (ABA) treatment. GbERF2 transgenic tobacco plants constitutively accumulated higher levels of pathogenesis-related gene transcripts, such as PR-1b, PR2 and PR4. The resistance of transgenic tobacco to fungal infection by Alternaria longipes was enhanced. However, the resistance to bacterial infection by Pseudomonas syringae pv. tabaci was not improved. These results show that GbERF2 plays an important role in response to ethylene stress and fungal attack in cotton.

[Sequence analysis of Bt insertion flanking fragments in transgenic Bt cotton].

The copies of outside gene and DNA structure of integration locus are important in high expression and avoidance of gene silence. Many research results showed that outside genes were inserted into the plant genome with recombinant type, and the integration was related to border T-DNA sequence in the course of Agrobaterium mediated transformation. SAR structure was also found in the integration location of transformants with direct DNA transformation method. The pollen-tube pathway transformation, one of direct DNA transformation method, was very successfully used in Bt transgenic cotton in China. But until now there has been no report about Bt gene integration. The aim of this research was to investigate flanking DNA structure in order to explain the mechanism of direct transformation method in the future. The structure of flanking DNA fragments of Bt integration in four different transgenic Bt cotton varieties including Simian-3, 161 resistant breeding line, 161 sensitive breeding line and Guokangmian-1 was analyzed with TAIL-PCR and nested PCR. The flanking DNA sequences of different self-crossed progenies from one plant are the same. In contrary, their DNA sequences are diverse for different breeding lines. Upstream flanking fragments in some transgenic cotton contained short transformation plasmid sequences, downstream flanking fragments in all the transgenic cotton varieties were composed of high percentage AT. The percentage of AT in Simian-3 transgenic Bt variety was as high as 92%. All the flanking fragments were of multi-copies and similar to repetitive sequences. No recognition sites of TOP enzyme were found in these fragments.