Bulletin of Botanical Research ›› 2025, Vol. 45 ›› Issue (2): 191-201.doi: 10.7525/j.issn.1673-5102.2025.02.005

• Original Paper • Previous Articles    

Identification and Preliminary Functional Analysis of the BpGRFs Gene in Betula Platyphylla

Ziteng SUN, Xinyu WANG, Lili HOU, Yueying LIU, Zhimin ZHENG()   

  1. State Key Laboratory of Tree Genetics and Breeding,College of Forestry,Northeast Forestry University,Harbin 150040
  • Received:2024-12-11 Online:2025-03-20 Published:2025-04-07
  • Contact: Zhimin ZHENG E-mail:zmzheng@nefu.edu.cn

Abstract:

GROWTH-REGULATING FACTOR(GRF) is a specific transcription factor widely found in plants, which plays an important role in plant growth and development and stress response. In this study, bioinformatics analysis of the birch(Betula platyphyllaGRF gene family revealed that the birch reference genome contained nine GRF gene family members with conserved WRC and QLQ structural domains, and prediction analysis of promoter cis-acting elements in the BpGRFs family genes revealed that it contained abundant elements related to growth and development, hormone metabolism and stress response. The qRT-PCR results showed that BpGRF4 was highly expressed in all tissues of birch, and Agrobacterium-mediated method was used to obtain birch overexpressing BpGRF4 lines(OE-1,OE-2,OE-3) and the role of BpGRF4 in the birch development was explored, and the BpGRF4 overexpression lines were significantly elevated in plant height, diameter of the ground, internode length, and branching length respectively. In addition, the area of cortex, phloem and core of OE-3 line were significantly increased, and the leaf epidermal cells were about 51.6% larger than that of the wild type. In conclusion, the growth and development of birch overexpressed BpGRF4 were positively regulated, which provided the theoretical basis for clarifying the GRF gene family function in the growth and development of birch.

Key words: birch, GRF, bioinformatics, growth and development

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