Abstract
BackgroundAs one of the largest subfamilies of the receptor-like protein kinases (RLKs) in plants, Leucine Rich Repeats-RLKs (LRR-RLKs) are involved in many critical biological processes including growth, development and stress responses in addition to various physiological roles. Arabidopsis contains 234 LRR-RLKs, and four members of Stress Induced Factor (SIF) subfamily (AtSIF1-AtSIF4) which are involved in abiotic and biotic stress responses. Herein, we aimed at identification and functional characterization of SIF subfamily in cultivated tetraploid cotton Gossypium hirsutum.ResultsGenome-wide analysis of cotton LRR-RLK gene family identified 543 members and phylogenetic analysis led to the identification of 6 cotton LRR-RLKs with high homology to Arabidopsis SIFs. Of the six SIF homologs, GhSIF1 is highly conserved exhibiting 46–47% of homology with AtSIF subfamily in amino acid sequence. The GhSIF1 was transiently silenced using Virus-Induced Gene Silencing system specifically targeting the 3’ Untranslated Region. The transiently silenced cotton seedlings showed enhanced salt tolerance compared to the control plants. Further, the transiently silenced plants showed better growth, lower electrolyte leakage, and higher chlorophyll and biomass contents.ConclusionsOverall, 543 LRR-RLK genes were identified using genome-wide analysis in cultivated tetraploid cotton G. hirsutum. The present investigation also demonstrated the conserved salt tolerance function of SIF family member in cotton. The GhSIF1 gene can be knocked out using genome editing technologies to improve salt tolerance in cotton.
Highlights
As one of the largest subfamilies of the receptor-like protein kinases (RLKs) in plants, Leucine Rich Repeats-RLKs (LRR-RLKs) are involved in many critical biological processes including growth, development and stress responses in addition to various physiological roles
Identification of Leucine-Rich Repeats (LRRs)-RLK gene family in Gossypium hirsutum TM-1 We have downloaded publicly available G. hirsutum TM-1 accession reference genome data and performed genome-wide similarity search to identify the LRR-RLK gene family using the sequences of Arabidopsis LRR-RLK proteins as query [12]
Using the Arabidopsis LRR-RLKs as references, 542 GhLRR-RLKs were grouped into 13 subclades in the Neighbor-Joining phylogenetic tree, while remaining one protein, CotAD_01838, was clustered together with an Arabidopsis LRR receptor-like protein At1G65380 (CLV2), which was not assigned to any Arabidopsis subclade (Fig. 1 & Additional file 1: Table S1)
Summary
As one of the largest subfamilies of the receptor-like protein kinases (RLKs) in plants, Leucine Rich Repeats-RLKs (LRR-RLKs) are involved in many critical biological processes including growth, development and stress responses in addition to various physiological roles. Arabidopsis contains 234 LRR-RLKs, and four members of Stress Induced Factor (SIF) subfamily (AtSIF1-AtSIF4) which are involved in abiotic and biotic stress responses. We aimed at identification and functional characterization of SIF subfamily in cultivated tetraploid cotton Gossypium hirsutum. In order to sense outside environment and efficiently communicate between cells, both animals and plants use plasma membrane and/or cell wall localized receptors, which perceive and transduce signals to modulate gene expression. Toll-like receptors represent the most important kinase receptors involved in signal transduction process [1]. Plant receptor-like protein kinases (RLKs), on the other hand, is the most important membrane.
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