Isolation and characterization of ethylene response factor family genes during development, ethylene regulation and stress treatments in papaya fruit

Ethylene response factors (ERFs) play important roles in fruit development, ripening, defense responses and stress signaling pathways. After harvest, climacteric fruit such as papaya are subject to a range of problems associated with postharvest handling and storage treatments. There have been few attempts to evaluate the role of ERFs in fruitʹs responses to environmental stimuli. To investigate the transcriptional mechanisms underlying fruit developmental, ripening and stresses, we cloned four ERFs from papaya. The deduced amino acid sequence of CpERFs contained the conserved apetalous (AP2)/ERF domain, which shared high similarity with other reported AP2/ERF domains. The phylogeny, gene structures, and putatively conserved motifs in papaya ERF proteins were analyzed, and compared with those of Arabidopsis. Expression patterns of CpERFs were examined during fruit development, under 1-MCP treatment, ethephon treatment, biotic stress (temperature stress) and pathogen stress. CpERFs displayed differential expression patterns and expression levels under different experimental conditions. CpERF2 and CpERF3 showed a close association with fruit ripening and CpERFs had a high expression level in the earlier stages during the fruit development period. The expression of CpERFs strongly associated with stress response. These results support the role for papaya ERFs in transcriptional regulation of ripening-related or stress-respond genes and thus, in the regulation of papaya fruit-ripening processes and stress responses.