1. Integrated mapping and characterization of the gene underlying the okra leaf trait inGossypium hirsutumL
- Author
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Iain W. Wilson, Zhengsheng Zhang, Danny J. Llewellyn, Qian-Hao Zhu, Dajun Liu, Dexin Liu, Jian Zhang, and Warwick N. Stiller
- Subjects
0301 basic medicine ,Candidate gene ,Physiology ,Arabidopsis ,okra leaf morphology ,Locus (genetics) ,Plant Science ,Genes, Plant ,Gossypium ,Gossypium raimondii ,Cotton (Gossypium spp.) ,03 medical and health sciences ,Quantitative Trait, Heritable ,Abelmoschus ,Gene Expression Regulation, Plant ,Sequence Analysis, Protein ,Botany ,targeted association analysis ,Gene conversion ,Gene ,non-reciprocal homoeologous recombination ,Alleles ,Crosses, Genetic ,Plant Proteins ,Ecotype ,biology ,fungi ,Chromosome Mapping ,food and beverages ,biology.organism_classification ,Plant Leaves ,Phenotype ,030104 developmental biology ,homeodomain leucine-zipper class I transcription factor ,Genetic Loci ,fine mapping ,Research Paper - Abstract
Highlight Characterization of GhOKRA suggests the involvement of protein activity and transcription of GhOKRA in regulating cotton leaf shape and a possible origin of the okra leaf trait by gene conversion., Diverse leaf morphology has been observed among accessions of Gossypium hirsutum, including okra leaf, which has advantages and disadvantages in cotton production. The okra leaf locus has been mapped to chromosome 15 of the Dt subgenome, but the underlying gene has yet to be identified. In this study, we used a combination of targeted association analysis, F2 population-based fine mapping, and comparative sequencing of orthologues to identify a candidate gene underlying the okra leaf trait in G. hirsutum. The okra leaf gene identified, GhOKRA, encoded a homeodomain leucine-zipper class I protein, whose closely related genes in several other plant species have been shown to be involved in regulating leaf morphology. The transcript levels of GhOKRA in shoot apices were positively correlated with the phenotypic expression of the okra leaf trait. Of the multiple sequence variations observed in the coding region among GrOKRA of Gossypium raimondii and GhOKRA-D t of normal and okra/superokra leaf G. hirsutum accessions, a non-synonymous substitution near the N terminus and the variable protein sequences at the C terminus may be related to the leaf shape difference. Our results suggest that both transcription and protein activity of GhOKRA may be involved in regulating leaf shape. Furthermore, we found that non-reciprocal homoeologous recombination, or gene conversion, may have played a role in the origin of the okra leaf allele. Our results provided tools for further investigating and understanding the fundamental biological processes that are responsible for the cotton leaf shape variation and will help in the design of cotton plants with an ideal leaf shape for enhanced cotton production.
- Published
- 2015