Abstract
Diacylglycerol kinase (DGK) is an enzyme that plays a pivotal role in abiotic and biotic stress responses in plants by transforming the diacylglycerol into phosphatidic acid. However, there is no report on the characterization of soybean DGK genes in spite of the availability of the soybean genome sequence. In this study, we performed genome-wide analysis and expression profiling of the DGK gene family in the soybean genome. We identified 12 DGK genes (namely GmDGK1-12) which all contained conserved catalytic domains with protein lengths and molecular weights ranging from 436 to 727 amino acids (aa) and 48.62 to 80.93 kDa, respectively. Phylogenetic analyses grouped GmDGK genes into three clusters—cluster I, cluster II, and cluster III—which had three, four, and five genes, respectively. The qRT-PCR analysis revealed significant GmDGK gene expression levels in both leaves and roots coping with polyethylene glycol (PEG), salt, alkali, and salt/alkali treatments. This work provides the first characterization of the DGK gene family in soybean and suggests their importance in soybean response to abiotic stress. These results can serve as a guide for future studies on the understanding and functional characterization of this gene family.
Highlights
Drought stress represents the most important limiting factor that affects plant growth and development, and severely reduces worldwide plant production [1,2]
We identified a total of 12 diacylglycerol kinase (DGK) genes that we designated as GmDGK1–12, and we grouped them in a table with their different identifiers and their open reading frames (ORFs) lengths, ranging from 1185 bp (GmDGK1) to 2184 bp (GmDGK12)
This study focused on the comprehensive genomic analysis and expression profiling of the diacylglycerol kinase (DGK) gene family in soybean (Glycine max) under abiotic stress
Summary
Drought stress represents the most important limiting factor that affects plant growth and development, and severely reduces worldwide plant production [1,2]. Many studies were conducted on plants using biotechnology methods to improve their abilities in adaptation to water shortage stress. Soybean (Glycine max) is a major oilseed crop and an important source of vegetable oil and protein for humans and animals worldwide. Soybean is one of the most important grain legumes, ranking among the top five worldwide major crops, generating 18–22% of essential sources of oil and 35–40% of protein nutrients and minerals. It is primarily grown in the tropics and semi-arid tropics (http://faostat.fao.org/). Many studies were conducted to improve the production of soybean under different environmental stress conditions [3,4,5]. We believe that the use of plant biotechnology is essential for the management of those genotypes which could efficiently exploit the use of available water
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