Abstract
Sucrose non-fermenting-1 (SNF1)-related protein kinase 2’s (SnRK2s) are plant-specific serine/threonine protein kinases and play crucial roles in the abscisic acid signaling pathway and abiotic stress response. Ammopiptanthus nanus is a relict xerophyte shrub and extremely tolerant of abiotic stresses. Therefore, we performed genome-wide identification of the AnSnRK2 genes and analyzed their expression profiles under osmotic stresses including drought and salinity. A total of 11 AnSnRK2 genes (AnSnRK2.1-AnSnRK2.11) were identified in the A. nanus genome and were divided into three groups according to the phylogenetic tree. The AnSnRK2.6 has seven introns and others have eight introns. All of the AnSnRK2 proteins are highly conserved at the N-terminus and contain similar motif composition. The result of cis-acting element analysis showed that there were abundant hormone- and stress-related cis-elements in the promoter regions of AnSnRK2s. Moreover, the results of quantitative real-time PCR exhibited that the expression of most AnSnRK2s was induced by NaCl and PEG-6000 treatments, but the expression of AnSnRK2.3 and AnSnRK2.6 was inhibited, suggesting that the AnSnRK2s might play key roles in stress tolerance. The study provides insights into understanding the function of AnSnRK2s.
Highlights
Plants frequently encounter surrounding environment changes and are vulnerable to these stimuli, including drought, extreme temperatures, and salinity
215 candidate sequences were aligned with the SnRK2 sequences of Arabidopsis and rice to construct a phylogenetic tree
The results showed that 11 SnRK2s of A. nanus and all SnRK2s of Arabidopsis and rice were clustered into the same branch with a bootstrap value of 100 (Figures S1 and S2)
Summary
Plants frequently encounter surrounding environment changes and are vulnerable to these stimuli, including drought, extreme temperatures, and salinity. Calcium-dependent protein kinase (CDPK) can phosphorylate and activate transcription factors, thereby regulating gene expression in response to environmental stimuli [8,9]. The sucrose non-fermenting-1 (SNF1)-related protein kinases (SnRKs) are plant-specific serine/threonine protein kinases They widely exist in higher plants, where they regulate plant growth and development and response to adversity stresses [11,12,13,14,15]. SnRK2 and SnRK3 subfamilies mediate plant response to drought, salinity, and osmotic stress [21,22]. The SnRK2.2/2.3/2.6 phosphorylate ABA-responsive elementbinding protein (AREB) and positively regulate ABA signaling in response to drought stress in Arabidopsis [28]. Quantitative real-time PCR was performed to analyze the expression pattern of the AnSnRK2 genes under osmotic stresses including drought and salinity. The study will provide useful information for further functional studies of the AnSnRK2 genes
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