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Functional identification of an EXPA gene (NcEXPA8) isolated from the tree Neolamarckia cadamba

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posted on 2017-09-13, 13:42 authored by Juncheng Li, XinSheng Hu, Xiaoling Huang, Heqiang Huo, Jingjian Li, Deng Zhang, Pei Li, Kunxi Ouyang, Xiaoyang Chen

As a class of important cell growth regulators, expansins have been studied for over 20 years. Since Neolamarckia cadamba (Roxb.) Bosser was praised as a ‘miraculous tree’ at the World Forestry Congress in 1972 due to its rapid growth. A lot of research has been carried out to uncover the underlying mechanisms of this rapid growth. Based on previous findings and our research, we hypothesized that expansins may play an important role in such growth. Quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR) analysis revealed that the N. cadamba expansin family member NcEXPA8 is highly expressed in all four young tissues, particularly in the cambium region, suggesting that NcEXPA8 acts as a key regulator of secondary growth in this gene family. Overexpression of NcEXPA8 in Arabidopsis thaliana increased the diameter and height of the main stem. It also promoted interfascicular fiber cell elongation and cell-wall thickness but did not alter the cellulose content in the cell wall. These results suggested that expansins act as activators during secondary fiber cell elongation during tip growth to promote plant growth.

Funding

This work was supported by the Graduate Student Overseas Study Program of South China Agricultural University [grant number 2017LHPY014]; National Natural Science Foundation of China [grant number 31600525], [grant number 31470681]; Forestry Science and Technology Innovation Project in Guangdong Province [grant number 2016KJCX003] and Science and Technology Program of Guangzhou [grant number 201607020024].

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