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Auxin response factors (ARFs) are recently discovered transcription factors that bind with auxin response elements (AuxRE, TGTCTC) to regulate the expression of early auxin-responsive genes. To our knowledge, the ARF gene family has never been characterized in cotton, the most important fiber crop in the world. In this study, a total of 35 ARF genes, named as GrARFs, were identified in a diploid cotton species Gossypium raimondii. The 35 ARF genes were located in 12 of the 13 cotton chromosomes; the intron/exon distribution of the GrARF genes was similar among sister pairs, whereas the divergence of some GrARF genes suggests the possibility of functional diversification. Our results show that the middle domains of nine GrARF proteins rich in glutamine (Q) are activators, while 26 other GrARF proteins rich in proline (P), serine (S), and threonine (T) are repressors. Our results also show that the expression of GrARF genes is diverse in different tissues. The expression of GrARF1 was significantly higher in leaves, whereas GrARF2a had higher expression level in shoots, which implicates different roles in the tested tissues. The GrARF11 has a higher expression level in buds than that in leaves, while GrARF19.2 shows contrasting expression patterns, having higher expression in leaves than that in buds. This suggests that they play different roles in leaves and buds. During long-term evolution of G. raimondii, some ARF genes were lost and some arose. The identification and characterization of the ARF genes in G. raimondii elucidate its important role in cotton that ARF genes regulate the development of flower buds, sepals, shoots, and leaves. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Reference genes are critical for normalization of the gene expression level of target genes. The widely used housekeeping genes may change their expression levels at different tissue under different treatment or stress conditions. Therefore, systematical evaluation on the housekeeping genes is required for gene expression analysis. Up to date, no work was performed to evaluate the housekeeping genes in cotton under stress treatment. In this study, we chose 10 housekeeping genes to systematically assess their expression levels at two different tissues (leaves and roots) under two different abiotic stresses (salt and drought) with three different concentrations. Our results show that there is no best reference gene for all tissues at all stress conditions. The reliable reference gene should be selected based on a specific condition. For example, under salt stress, UBQ7, GAPDH and EF1A8 are better reference genes in leaves; TUA10, UBQ7, CYP1, GAPDH and EF1A8 were better in roots. Under drought stress, UBQ7, EF1A8, TUA10, and GAPDH showed less variety of expression level in leaves and roots. Thus, it is better to identify reliable reference genes first before performing any gene expression analysis. However, using a combination of housekeeping genes as reference gene may provide a new strategy for normalization of gene expression. In this study, we found that combination of four housekeeping genes worked well as reference genes under all the stress conditions. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are an important gene regulator, controlling almost all biological and metabolic processes, in both plants and animals. In this study, we investigated the effect of drought and salinity stress on the expression of miRNAs and their targets in cotton (Gossypium hirsutum L.). Our results show that the expression change of miRNAs and their targets were dose-dependent and tissue-dependent under salinity and drought conditions. The expression of miRNAs in leaf was down-regulated under higher salinity stress while shows variable patterns in other conditions. The highest fold-changes of miRNAs were miR398 in roots with 28.9 fold down-regulation under 0.25% NaCl treatment and miR395 in leaves with 7.6 fold down-regulation under 1% PEG treatment. The highest up-regulation of miRNA targets was AST in roots with 4.7 fold-change under 2.5% PEG and the gene with highest down-regulation was CUC1 in leaves with 25.6 fold-change under 0.25% NaCl treatment. Among seven miRNA-target pairs we studied, five pairs, miR156–SPL2, miR162–DCL1, miR159–TCP3, miR395–APS1 and miR396–GRF1, show significant regulation relationship in roots and leaves under salinity stress concentration. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]