Abstract
Vacuolar processing enzymes (VPEs) play an important role in stress resistance and development of plants. Despite their diverse roles, little information is available in apple (Malus × domestic). This study firstly presents the genome-wide identification of VPE family genes in apple, resulting in 20 family members those are unevenly distributed across six out of the 17 chromosomes. Phylogenetic analysis assigned these genes into four groups. Analysis of exon–intron junctions and motifs of each candidate gene revealed high levels of conservation within and between phylogenetic groups. Cis-element including w box, ABRE, LTR, and TC-rich repeats were found in promoters of MdVPEs. NCBI-GEO database shown that the expression of MdVPEs exhibited diverse patterns in different tissues as well as the infection of Pythium ultimum and Apple Stem Grooving Virus. Furthermore, qRT-PCR showed that MdVPE genes were responsive to salt, cadmium, low-temperature, and drought. Overexpression of MDP0000172014, which was strongly induced by salt and drought stress, significantly decreased Arabidopsis tolerance to salt stress. The genome-wide identification and characterization of MdVPEs in apple provided basic information for the potential utilization of MdVPEs in stress resistance.
Highlights
Programmed cell death (PCD), which plays an important role in developmental processes and stress resistance of eukaryotes, is a genetically regulated physiological process (Hatsugai et al, 2015)
Arabidopsis vacuolar processing enzymes (VPEs) protein sequences were downloaded from the TAIR database and used to BLAST-P in the apple proteins database
Increasing studies showed that PCD played a central role in plants developmental process and stress responses (Hatsugai et al, 2015)
Summary
Programmed cell death (PCD), which plays an important role in developmental processes and stress resistance of eukaryotes, is a genetically regulated physiological process (Hatsugai et al, 2015). Legumain, which is referred to as vacuolar processing enzymes (VPEs), has the characteristics of caspase-1-like activity (Hatsugai et al, 2015). Based on the expression and functional characteristics, VPEs could be divided into three sub-families: vegetative VPEs, seed VPEs, and uncharacterized VPEs. Vegetative VPEs including γVPE and δVPE, are essential for stress resistance of plants, while seed VPEs including αVPE and βVPE, play an important role in developmental process (Christoff et al, 2014), and the functions of uncharacterized VPEs have not been identified
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