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Group VII E thylene R esponse F actor diversification and regulation in four species from flood‐prone environments
Author(s) -
VEEN HANS,
AKMAN MELIS,
JAMAR DIAAN C. L.,
VREUGDENHIL DICK,
KOOIKER MAARTEN,
TIENDEREN PETER,
VOESENEK LAURENTIUS A. C. J.,
SCHRANZ M. ERIC,
SASIDHARAN RASHMI
Publication year - 2014
Publication title -
plant, cell and environment
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.646
H-Index - 200
eISSN - 1365-3040
pISSN - 0140-7791
DOI - 10.1111/pce.12302
Subject(s) - biology , gene duplication , evolutionary biology , arabidopsis , synteny , gene , phylogenetic tree , clade , phylogenetics , adaptation (eye) , genetics , botany , ecology , genome , neuroscience , mutant
Flooding events negatively affect plant performance and survival. Flooding gradients thereby determine the dynamics in vegetation composition and species abundance. In adaptation to flooding, the group VII E thylene R esponse F actor genes ( ERF ‐ VII s) play pivotal roles in rice and A rabidopsis through regulation of anaerobic gene expression and antithetical survival strategies. We investigated if ERF ‐ VII s have a similar role in mediating survival strategies in eudicot species from flood‐prone environments. Here, we studied the evolutionary origin and regulation of ERF ‐ VII transcript abundance and the physiological responses in species from two genera of divergent taxonomic lineages ( R umex and R orippa ). Synteny analysis revealed that angiosperm ERF ‐ VII s arose from two ancestral loci and that subsequent diversification and duplication led to the present ERF ‐ VII variation. We propose that subtle variation in the regulation of ERF ‐ VII transcript abundance could explain variation in tolerance among R orippa species. In R umex , the main difference in flood tolerance correlated with the genetic variation in ERF ‐ VII genes. Large transcriptional differences were found by comparing the two genera: darkness and dark submergence‐induced R umex ERF ‐ VII s, whereas HRE2 expression was increased in submerged R orippa roots. We conclude that the involvement of ERF ‐ VII s in flooding tolerance developed in a phylogenetic‐dependent manner, with subtle variations within taxonomic clades.