AUTHOR=Zhang Zhou , Gangurde Sunil S. , Chen Songbin , Mandlik Rushil Ramesh , Liu Haiyan , Deshmukh Rupesh , Xu Jialing , Wu Zhongkang , Hong Yanbin , Li Yin TITLE=Overexpression of peanut (Arachis hypogaea L.) AhGRFi gene enhanced root growth inhibition under exogenous NAA treatment in Arabidopsis thaliana JOURNAL=Frontiers in Plant Science VOLUME=Volume 14 - 2023 YEAR=2023 URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/plant-science/articles/10.3389/fpls.2023.1184058 DOI=10.3389/fpls.2023.1184058 ISSN=1664-462X ABSTRACT=The 14-3-3 protein is a kind of evolutionary ubiquitous protein family highly conserved in eukaryotes. Initially, 14-3-3 proteins were reported in mammalian nervous tissues, but in the last decade, their role in various metabolic pathways in plants established the importance of 14-3-3 proteins. In present study, a total of 22 14-3-3 genes also called as general regulatory factors (GRF) were identified in the peanut (Arachis hypogaea) genome out of which 12 belonged to the ε group, whereas 10 of them belonged to the non- ε-group. Tissue-specific expression of identified 14-3-3 genes was studied using transcriptome analysis. The peanut AhGRFi gene was cloned and transformed in Arabidopsis thaliana. The investigation of subcellular localization indicated that AhGRFi is localized in the cytoplasm. Overexpression of AhGRFi gene in transgenic Arabidopsis showed that under exogenous 1-naphthaleneacetic acid (NAA) treatment, root growth inhibition of transgenic plants was enhanced. Further analysis indicated that the expression of auxin-responsive genes IAA3, IAA7, IAA17 and SAUR-AC1 were up-regulated, and GH3.2, GH3.3 were downed-regulated in transgenic plants, but the expression of GH3.2, GH3.3 and SAUR-AC1 showed opposite trends of change under NAA treatment. These results suggest that the AhGRFi may be involved in the auxin signaling during seedling root development. An in-depth study on the molecular mechanism of this process remains to be further explored.