Genome-wide identification and expression analysis of CC-NB-ARC-LRR (NB-ARC) disease-resistant family members from soybean (Glycine max L.) reveal their response to biotic stress

Abstract

ObjectiveUsing disease-resistant genes is the most effective strategy for protecting crops and ensuring agricultural production, or and protection against infections of different pathogens. Under biotic and abiotic stresses, NB-ARC proteins play a critical role in regulating several critical plant metabolic processes and pathways. MethodsNB-ARC identification and characterization in soybean are still in their infancy, even though R genes have been characterized by various major crop plants. NB-ARC encoding (R) genes in the soybean genome were identified and characterized in silico. ResultsThe 103 NB-ARC genes were computationally identified in the soybean genome, randomly distributed on all soybean chromosomes except 5, 10, and 17. Phylogenetic analysis classified the NB-ARC proteins into nine primary groups. However, synteny analysis results of NB-ARC genes of soybean found the best orthologous hit in the A. thaliana representing sequence conservation up to 80%. Soybean NB-ARC genes displayed a plurality of introns between one to seven among the family members. Although their genomic regions have different sizes, a relatively conserved genetic structure was observed within phylogenetic tree groups. Twenty different domains were kept in a group-specific manner, together with the presence of the NB-ARC signatory. Moreover, the transcriptome based-data expression analysis suggested that NB-ARC genes in between non-pathogens and pathogens after the inoculation of Fusarium oxysporum (biotic stress) in the soybean transcriptome, supporting the conjecture of NB-ARC genes have disease resistance functions in the soybean genome and revealing the potential involvement of these genes in the conserved pathways of the biotic-stress-response. ConclusionThis genome-wide in silico/ computational analysis will be used for accelerating NB-ARC members used for functional characterization, especially under biotic and abiotic stresses.