Overexpression of PagGRF11 in poplar resulted in excessive accumulation of chlorophyll and inhibited seedling de-etiolation

Seedling de-etiolation, including photosynthetically active chloroplast production and inhibition of hypocotyl elongation, is essential for plant growth and development, but its molecular mechanism is still incomplete. Overexpression of PagGRF11 in poplar can change leaf morphology and even chloroplast shape, resulting in increased chloroplast-thylakoid stacking layers and chlorophyll content. Excessive accumulation of chlorophyll leads to photo-oxidative damage in leaves during photosynthesis. At the same time, overexpression of PagGRF11 could reduce the greening rate of etiolated seedlings. After application of brassinosteroid (BR), it was found that BR was able to inhibit the greening rate of yellowing seedlings. Comparative transcriptome analysis (OE-vs-WT) revealed that some key genes involved in BR signal transduction pathways were up-regulated in PagGRF11 overexpressed lines. The identification of PagGRF11 provided an entry point for studying de-etiolation pathways.