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Expression and functional analysis of NUCLEAR FACTOR-Y, subunit B genes in barley

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Abstract

NUCLEAR FACTOR-Y, subunit B (NF-YB) comprises a multigene family in plants and has been shown to play important roles in growth, development, and response to environmental stress. In this study, five NF-YBs containing the full-length coding region were obtained from barley (Hordeum vulgare) through database sequence analysis, cloning, and sequencing. Sequence alignment and phylogenetic analysis showed that HvNF-YB3 and HvNF-YB1 were clustered with NF-YB2 and NF-YB3 in Arabidopsis, suggesting these NF-YBs are evolutionary and functionally related. To test this hypothesis, HvNF-YB3 and HvNF-YB1 were overexpressed in Arabidopsis. Overexpression of HvNF-YB1 greatly promoted early flowering in Arabidopsis, supporting that HvNF-YB1may have conserved gene function in flowering time control as NF-YB2 and NF-YB3 in Arabidopsis. Overexpression of HvNF-YB3 in Arabidopsis had no effect on flowering time. An analysis of barley single-nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) data, however, revealed a significant association between an HvNF-YB3 SNP and heading date. While it is unknown whether HvNF-YB3 directly contributes to heading date regulation, the results implied that HvNF-YB3 may also have conserved function in flowering time (heading date in barley) control. Further studies are needed to directly verify these gene functions in barley. Barley NF-YBs showed different expression patterns associated with tissue types, developmental stages, and response to different stress treatments, suggesting that barley NF-YBs may be involved in other physiological processes.

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Abbreviations

HAP:

Heme activator protein

NF-Y:

NUCLEAR FACTOR-Y

CBF-A:

CCAAT-Binding Factor A

CO:

CONSTANS

GI:

GIGANTAE

SOC1:

SUPPRESSOR OF OVEREXPRESSION OF CONSTANS1

FT:

FLOWERING LOCUS T

ABA:

Abscisic acid

SNP:

Single-nucleotide polymorphism

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Acknowledgments

The research is supported by a grant from the North American Barley Genome project and by the Utah and South Dakota Agricultural Experiment Stations at the Utah State University and South Dakota State University. The authors are grateful to the Barley CAP program for providing barley phenotypic and SNP genotypic data.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Plants, Soils, and Climate, Utah State University, Logan, UT, 84322, USA

    Mingxiang Liang, David Hole & Yajun Wu

  2. College of Resources and Environmental Sciences, Nanjing Agriculture University, 210095, Nanjing, Peopleʼs Republic of China

    Mingxiang Liang

  3. Department of Plant Science, South Dakota State University, Brookings, SD, 57007, USA

    Jixiang Wu

  4. Department of Plant Sciences and Plant Pathology, Montana State University, Bozeman, MT, 59717-3150, USA

    Tom Blake

  5. Department of Biology and Microbiology, South Dakota State University, Brookings, SD, 57007, USA

    Yajun Wu

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  1. Mingxiang Liang
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Correspondence to Yajun Wu.

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Liang, M., Hole, D., Wu, J. et al. Expression and functional analysis of NUCLEAR FACTOR-Y, subunit B genes in barley. Planta 235, 779–791 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00425-011-1539-0

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