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Journal of Integrative Agriculture  2026, Vol. 25 Issue (8): 3103-3117    DOI: 10.1016/j.jia.2024.09.035
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Towards a better understanding of auxin response factors for improving cereal crops

Linyi Qiao1, Huifang Li3#, Jun Zheng1, 2#, Xueyong Zhang4

1 College of Agronomy, Shanxi Agricultural University/Key Laboratory of Sustainable Dryland Agriculture (Co-construction by Ministry and Province), Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, Taiyuan 030031, China

2 Institute of Wheat Research, Shanxi Agricultural University, Linfen 041000, China

3 State Key Laboratory of High-Efficiency Production of Wheat–Maize Double Cropping/Center for Crop Genome Engineering/College of Agronomy, Henan Agricultural University, Zhengzhou 450046, China

4 Institute of Crop Sciences, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Beijing 100081, China

 Highlights 
Auxin response factor (ARF) gene families in the big three cereal crops are classified together to facilitate functional prediction.
Nomenclatures for previously reported ARFs are revised to the family numbers to better summarize ARFs’ functions.
Regulatory models of ARF and other genes/miRNAs on agronomic and yield traits are introduced.
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摘要  

生长素响应因子(auxin response factor, ARF)是生长素信号途径的关键分,在植物生命周期诸多环节发挥重要作用模式植物拟南芥ARFs的结构和功能已经有大量报道,但小麦、水稻和玉米等禾谷类作物的ARFs还需深入研究。本上述三种禾谷类作物中ARF家族研究进展进行了综述,包括四个部分:(1)对小麦、水稻和玉米全基因组的232533ARF家族成员的结构分别进行了表征;(2通过序列比对,将报道的ARFs家族编号统一命名,并总结了这些ARFs在调控农艺性状和响应生物/非生物胁迫方面的功能;(3归纳了ARF在营养生长和生殖生长阶段的调控模型,包括miRNA-ARFsIAA-ARF-LBDIAA-ARF-生长素下游响应基因和IAA-ARF-ERF;4)展望了利用ARF改良农艺性状的前景。综述将有助于深入理解ARF在三种禾谷类作物中的功能并促进其在分子育种中的应用,以实现更理想植株结构、更高的产量和广泛的适应性。



Abstract  

The auxin response factor (ARF) is the key component of phytohormone auxin signal pathway and is crucial in regulating a plurality of functions throughout the plant life cycle.  Although ARFs’ structure and function have been well studied in Arabidopsis, such knowledge is far from being sufficient for cereal crops, especially wheat, rice, and maize.  This review is based on a comprehensive retrospection into the studies on ARFs in the three cereal crops, consisting of four parts: (1) characterization of the domains of 23, 25, and 33 ARF family members in wheat, rice, and maize, respectively; (2) revision of nomenclatures for previously reported ARFs to the family numbers based on sequence alignment, and summary of ARFs’ functions including the regulation of agronomic traits and response to biotic/abiotic stresses; (3) highlight of general regulatory models for fundamental physiological and reproductive traits from miRNA-ARFs, IAA-ARF-LBD, IAA-ARF-Auxin response gene, and IAA-ARF-ERF (4) prospects to promising future ARF research for anticipated agronomic traits.  This review is expected to enhance understanding of ARF functions in the three cereal crops and promote their application in molecular breeding to achieve optimal plant architecture, higher yield, and wider adaptability.

Keywords:  ARFs        nomenclature        domain        function        wheat–rice–maize  
Received: 29 July 2024   Accepted: 10 September 2024 Online: 26 September 2024  
Fund: 
This project was funded by grants from the National Natural Science Foundation of China (32201749), the Key Research and Development Program of Shanxi Province, China (202102140601001 and 202201140601025-2), and the fellowship of China Postdoctoral Science Foundation (2020M670701).
About author:  #Correspondence Jun Zheng, E-mail: sxnkyzj@126.com; Huifang Li, E-mail: lihuifang0213@163.com

Cite this article: 

Linyi Qiao, Huifang Li, Jun Zheng, Xueyong Zhang. 2026. Towards a better understanding of auxin response factors for improving cereal crops. Journal of Integrative Agriculture, 25(8): 3103-3117.

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