TITLE:
Homeobox leucine zipper proteins and cotton improvement
AUTHORS:
Muzna Zahur, Muhammad Ahsan Asif, Nadia Zeeshan, Sajid Mehmood, Muhammad Faheem Malik, Abdul R. Asif
KEYWORDS:
Cotton; Stress; Transcription Factor; HD-Zip Proteins; Homeobox Leucine Zipper
JOURNAL NAME:
Advances in Bioscience and Biotechnology,
Vol.4 No.10B,
September
23,
2013
ABSTRACT:
Transcription factors play key roles in plant development and stress responses through their interaction with cis-elements and/or
other transcription factors. Homeodomain associated leucine zipper proteins
(HD-Zip) constitute a family of transcription factors that are characterized by
the presence of a DNA-binding domain closely linked with leucine zipper motif
functioning in dimer formation. This type of association is unique to plants
and considered as an excellent candidate to
activate developmental responses to altering environmental conditions.
Cotton is the most important fiber plant with a lot of local and commercial
uses in the world. HD-Zip proteins not only have key roles in different stages
of vascular and inter-fascicular fiber differentiation of cotton but also are suggested
to have an important role against abiotic stress that is one of the key
factors limiting cotton productivity. Plants have developed various strategies
to manage stress conditions through a combination of metabolic, physiological
and morphological adaptations. These adaptive changes rely largely on alterations in gene expression. Therefore, transcriptional regulators play a crucial
role in stress tolerance. Being a transcription factor HD-Zip might be a
useful target for genetic engineering to generate multiple stress tolerance in
susceptible plants. In the following chapter, we discussed how the HD-Zip proteins
would play a useful role for cotton development both in fiber production and
stress adaptation.