GhAIL6, a Member of the AP2 Family Gene, Promotes Somatic Embryogenesis in Cotton.

Background Somatic embryogenesis (SE) is the process by which plant somatic cells are cultured in vitro without fertilization to regenerate embryos and develop into intact plants, the difficulty of cotton regeneration has severely limited functional gene research and transgenic breeding. The AP2 family is a relatively large family of transcription factor genes that regulate the process of growth and development, but the role of Aintegumenta-Like6 ( AIL6) in cotton SE has not been reported. Methods The 35S::AIL6:GR vector was constructed and transformed into cotton JH713 by Agrobacterium-mediated method, after 3 years of self-breeding, stable genetic T3 generation positive plants were obtained, identified by Southern, and three lines were selected for the following regeneration experiments.Results The results showed that overexpression of GhAIL6 significantly inhibited the proliferation of callus during the first 30 days, and promoted the embryogenic callus production at about 45 days.Couclusion Our results indicated that GhAIL6 was a key regulator of cotton SE, overexpression of GhAIL6 helped to improve the regeneration efficiency of cotton SE

ApicoTFdb: The comprehensive web repository of apicomplexan transcription factors and regulators

Despite significant progress in apicomplexans genome sequencing and genomics, the current list of experimentally validated TFs in these genomes is incomplete and mainly consists of AP2 family of proteins, with only a limited number of non-AP2 family TFs and TAFs. We have performed systematic bioinformatics aided prediction of TFs and TAFs in apicomplexan genomes, and developed ApicoTFdb database which consists of experimentally validated as well as computationally predicted TFs and TAFs in 14 apicomplexan species. The predicted TFs are manually curated to complement the existing annotations. The current version of the database includes 1310 TFs, out of which 833 are novel and computationally predicted TFs, representing 22 distinct families across 14 apicomplexan species. The predictions include TFs of TUB, NAC, BSD, CCAAT, HTH, Cupin/Jumonji, winged-helix, and FHA family proteins, not reported earlier in the genomes.Apart from TFs, ApicoTFdb also classifies TAFs into three main subclasses-TRs, CRRs and RNARs, representing 3047 TAFs in 14 apicomplexan species are analyzed in this study. The database is equipped with a set of useful tools for comparative analysis of a user-defined list of the proteins. ApicoTFdb will be useful to the researchers interested in less-studied gene regulatory mechanisms mediating the complex life cycle of the apicomplexan parasites. The database will aid the discovery of novel drug targets to much needed combat the growing drug resistance in the parasites.

ApicoTFdb: the comprehensive web repository of apicomplexan transcription factors and transcription-associated co-factors

Despite significant progress in apicomplexan genome sequencing and genomics, the current list of experimentally validated transcription factors (TFs) in these genomes is incomplete and mainly consists of AP2 family of proteins, with only a limited number of non-AP2 family TFs and transcription-associated co-factors (TcoFs). We have performed a systematic bioinformatics-aided prediction of TFs and TcoFs in apicomplexan genomes and developed the ApicoTFdb database which consists of experimentally validated as well as computationally predicted TFs and TcoFs in 14 apicomplexan species. The predicted TFs are manually curated to complement the existing annotations. The current version of the database includes 1292 TFs which includes experimentally validated and computationally predicted TFs, representing 20 distinct families across 14 apicomplexan species. The predictions include TFs of TUB, NAC, BSD, HTH, Cupin/Jumonji, winged helix and FHA family proteins, not reported earlier as TFs in the genomes. Apart from TFs, ApicoTFdb also classifies TcoFs into three main subclasses: TRs, CRRs and RNARs, representing 2491 TcoFs in 14 apicomplexan species, are analyzed in this study. The database is designed to integrate different tools for comparative analysis. All entries in the database are dynamically linked with other databases, literature reference, protein–protein interactions, pathways and annotations associated with each protein. ApicoTFdb will be useful to the researchers interested in less-studied gene regulatory mechanisms mediating the complex life cycle of the apicomplexan parasites. The database will aid in the discovery of novel drug targets to much needed combat the growing drug resistance in the parasites.