Identification of key plant height related ZmGRF genes in maize by weighted gene co-expression network analysis
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Abstract:
Growth-regulating factors (GRF) is an important type of transcription factors, which were specifically identified in plant kingdom. Several homologs of GRF genes have been demonstrated to be key regulators that could affect the development of plant height in model plants, such as Oryza sativa and Arabidopsis thaliana. However, if there were ZmGRF genes that were involved in the transcriptional regulation network of plant height in maize remains elusive. In the present study, weighted gene co-expression network analysis (WGCNA) was used to explore the potential key hub ZmGRF genes via previously published high-throughput RNA-seq dataset. A total of nine candidate ZmGRF genes exhibited significant co-expression mode with functionally characterized genes in maize. Moreover, 8 out of 9 candidate gene could form robust gene pairs within maize or between maize and rice genomes via microsynteny analysis. The ratio of Ka to Ks for each gene pair indicated that all ZmGRF genes were undergone stringent purifying selection, indicating the conversation of molecular function of ZmGFR genes in maize. Finally, ZmGRF genes showed clearly diverse expression profiles in different maize lines or developmental stages. The present study could provide a modest comprehensive analysis of ZmGRF genes in maize and may help characterizing its molecular function in regulation of plant height in future.
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