Cotton fiber development is a complex process regulated by multiple networks that involve various transcription factors (TFs). Recent studies (2020-2025) have elucidated the roles of TFs through silencing and overexpression experiments in cotton plants. We conducted a literature search in NCBI using the keywords ‘transcription factor, fiber elongation, cotton plant’ to identify relevant studies. This review focuses on studies published between 2020 and 2025 that were selected for review. We discussed various TFs and molecular mechanisms leading to altered fiber length. The research works included various analyses of transcription factors, genes, proteins, and metabolites as well as fiber quality results. The reviewed data highlight the complexity of fiber development networks, which involve extensive crosstalk among regulatory pathways. Despite the complexity, many novel TFs, modules, and tandems that participate in fiber elongation have been found. Their positive or negative regulatory roles in fiber formation stages promote a more profound understanding of fiber initiation and elongation.

The GeBP gene family, known for its GLABROUS1 enhancer-binding proteins, represents a standard transcription factor characterized by an unconventional leucine-zipper motif. The constituents of this family possess a core DNA-affinity domain. This protein is crucial for controlling plant growth and development. GeBP genes have been analyzed and defined only in some Gramineae crops, Arabidopsis, rice and soybean. However, a comprehensive examination of the role of the GeBP genes in Brassica rapa has yet to be conducted. This study used genome-wide characterization to identify twenty BrGeBP genes and accessible RNA sequencing data to evaluate each gene's expression. Based on phylogenetic research, we grouped 114 GeBP proteins from five different plant species into six groups. Generally, groupings of BrGeBP genes with comparable motifs and exon-intron distribution were conserved. The twenty BrGeBP genes were found on six of the ten B. rapa chromosomes, and one paralog showed segmental duplication. The varied protein motifs and gene structures showed that the GeBP genes had various roles in plants. The functions of BrGeBP genes are numerous and include expressions responsive to specific tissues, stress, and hormones according to cis-elements analysis. Furthermore, expression analysis using RNA sequencing revealed that the genes BrGeBP3, BrGeBP9, and BrGeBP20 showed substantially increased expression in different organs. These findings will aid in elucidating the possible roles and traits of BrGeBP genes in the B. rapa biological cycle and related species.

Global population is increasing day-by-day, simultaneously, crop production need to increase proportionately. Whereas, increase crop production being restricted due to abiotic and biotic stresses. Abiotic stresses are adversely affected crop growth and development, leading to crop loss globally and thereby causing huge amount of economic loss as well. Contrary, pathogens are attacked the plants imposing biotic stress and severely hampers the yield. Therefore, it is prime need to understand the molecular mechanism and genes involved to minimize the biotic and abiotic stresses for mitigating the Brassica vegetable crop losses. The stress responsive, pathogens related genes are involved in tolerance or resistance to stress in plants that are cross-talk with different types of stress components in signal transduction pathways. The plants have their own mechanism to overcome biotic and abiotic stresses to follow the abscisic acid (ABA)-dependent and ABA-independent pathways. Several transcription factors such as WRKY, Alfin-like, MYB, NAC, DREB, CBF are integrating to various stress signals and controlling the gene expression through networking with their related cis-elements. To develop stress tolerance and/or resistant crops plants, there is need to realize both of the plant and pathogenic disease development mechanisms. Therefore, this article is focused on (i) major and devastating stresses on vegetable crops, (ii) role of genes to overcome the stresses, and (iii) differential genes expressed under biotic and abiotic stresses in Brassica oleracea and B. rapa for getting insight of the mechanisms of development of resistance lines.

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Bacterial leaf pustule (BLP) caused by Xanthomonas axonopodis pv. glycines (Xag) is a serious disease in soybean. To investigate the role of transcription factors (TFs) in plant defense mechanisms under Xag treatment, soybean near-isogenic lines (NILs) carrying BLP-susceptible and BLP-resistant allele were analyzed by RNA-seq. A total of 2,415 differentially expressed genes were identified at 0, 6, and 12 hr after Xag infection. Using SoyDB and SoybeanTFDB (soybean TF databases), a total of 351 differentially expressed TF genes were identified, of which 80% were top ten major TF families. Among 351 TF genes, 263 and 40 were up-regulated and down-regulated, repectively, in BLP-resistant NIL compared to that in BLP-susceptible NIL at the three time points (0, 6, and 12 hr) after Xag infection. The rest 48 TF genes were either up-regulated or down-regulated at each time period in BLP-resistant NIL. Most TF genes were highly up-regulated in the BLP-resistant NIL at 0 hr. Additionally, cis-regulatory elements (CREs) involving in regulation of stress-responsive transcription, ABRE, G-box, MYBR, MYCR, and W-box were investigated. A total of 1,092 downstream genes were identified. Our results will improve the understanding on how plant immunity occurs via TFs and CREs.

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The differential expression of six basic helix-loop-helix (bHLH) genes in response to low temperatures was studied by evaluating their mRNA levels in the buds and shoots of grapevines. Comparison of the amino acid sequences deduced from nucleotide sequences of the bHLH genes in Vitis labruscana transcripts revealed homologies ranging from 58.8% (VlCEbHLH1 and VlCEbHLH4) to 8.2% (VvbHLH and VlCEbHLH3). Specific primers from unique regions of genes were obtained by alignment of nucleotide sequences and used to evaluate differential expression patterns of bHLH genes. The accumulation patterns of bHLH mRNAs were induced differentially and dependent on the treated temperatures, −20°C in the buds and −2°C and 4°C in the shoots of ‘Campbell Early’ and ‘Muscat Baily A’ grapevines. The bHLH genes showed differential expression patterns in response to low temperatures. In ‘Campbell Early’, the expression of VlCEbHLH1, VlCEbHLH2, and VlCEbHLH5 was up-regulated, while VlCEbHLH3 was down-regulated in response to −20°C cold stress. In ‘Muscat Bailey A’, the expression of all genes was rapidly up-regulated, peaking at 6 h, then decreasing at 12 h after treatment.

Transcription factors are the regulatory proteins which activate or repress their target genes. We isolated homeodomain-leucine zipper III (PagHD-ZIP III_1) gene, a plant-specific transcription factor known to play crucial roles in plant development, from poplar (Populus alba × P. glandulosa). The PagHD-ZIP III_1 is 2,723 base pairs long and encodes a putative 838 amino acid protein with an expected molecular mass of 92.3 kDa. The PagHD-ZIP III_1 protein has four conserved regions including HD, bZIP, START and MEKHLA. Southern blot analysis indicated that PagHD-ZIP III_1 belong to a small gene family in the poplar genome. PagHD-ZIP III_1 is expressed highly in the stem. Moreover, the expression of PagHD-ZIP III_1 is induced by salt, cold, wounding and a plant hormone JA. Our results indicate that PagHD-ZIP III_1 is involved in abiotic stress response and hormonal signaling in poplar.

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