Genome-Wide Analysis of DA1-Like Genes in Gossypium and Functional Characterization of GhDA1-1A Controlling Seed Size

Abstract

Cotton (Gossypium spp.) is an economically important crop grown for natural fiber and seed oil production. DA1 is a ubiquitin receptor that determines final seed and organ size by restricting the period of cell proliferation. In the present study, we identified 7 DA1-like genes each in cultivated tetraploid (AADD) G. hirsutum and G. barbadense, and 4 and 3 DA1-like genes in their ancestral diploid G. arboreum (A2A2) and G. raimondii (D5D5), respectively. The 7 GhDA1 genes were confirmed to be distributed on four At and three Dt subgenome chromosomes in G. hirsutum. GhDA1-1A showed a high sequence similarity to AtDA1 in Arabidopsis, and they possessed the same functional domains, suggesting conserved functions. The overexpression of GhDA1-1AR301K in Arabidopsis significantly increased seed size and seed weight, indicating that GhDA1-1A is a promising target for cotton improvement. This study provides information on the molecular evolutionary properties of DA1-like genes in cotton, which will be useful for the genetic improvement of cotton.

Genome-Wide Identification and Expression Analysis of the DA1 Gene Family in Sweet Potato and Its Two Diploid Relatives

“…The DA1 gene family members have been systematically analyzed in a variety of crops such as Arabidopsis thaliana [ 1 ], rice [ 20 ], rapeseed [ 15 ], maize [ 17 ], cotton [ 19 ], oat [ 18 ], and soybean [ 27 ], but the DA1-like genes of sweet potato have not been analyzed. With the rapid development of sweet potato sequencing technology and genetic engineering, it is convenient to mine candidate genes related to sweet potato yield and quality.…”

“…The DA1-like gene family has been identified in several crops: four genes in rapeseed ( Brassica napus ) [ 15 ], eleven genes in soybean ( Glycine max ) [ 16 ], six genes in maize ( Zea mays L.) [ 17 ], three genes in oat ( Avena sativa L.) [ 18 ], twenty-one genes in cotton ( Gossypium spp.) [ 19 ], and four genes in rice ( Oryza sativa L.) [ 20 ]. The DA1 gene was initially discovered to regulate the size of leaves, seeds, flowers, and siliques in Arabidopsis thaliana .…”

Genome-Wide Analysis of the GW2-Like Genes in Gossypium and Functional Characterization of the Seed Size Effect of GhGW2-2D

“…Overexpression of GhGW2-2D in Arabidopsis decreased seed size, indicating that the product encoded by this gene may play a negative regulatory role in seed development. DA1 interacts with the E3 ubiquitin ligase DA2 to regulate seed and organ size in Arabidopsis , Triticum aestivum , and G. hirsutum ( Xia et al, 2013 ; Liu et al, 2020 ; Yang et al, 2021 ). It may be interesting to further explore the molecular network controlling seed size in cotton.…”

Modulation of the DA1 pathway in maize shows that translatability of information from Arabidopsis to crops is complex

“…Overexpression of Arabidopsis DA1 R358K in Brassica napus caused larger organs, including seeds, cotyledons, leaves, flowers, and siliques [14]. Overexpression of the cotton DA1 dominant negative allele, GhDA1-1A R301K , in Arabidopsis increased seed size and seed weight [15]. Down-regulating the wheat DA1 homologue, TaDA1, also showed an increase in kernel size and weight, while overexpression of TaDA1 resulted in the opposite phenotypes [16].…”