Abstract
GRAS proteins are important transcription factors that play multifarious roles in regulating the growth and development as well as stress responses of plants. Tea plant is an economically important leaf -type beverage crop. Information concerning GRAS family transcription factors in tea plant is insufficient. In this study, 52 CsGRAS genes encoding GRAS proteins were identified from tea plant genome database. Phylogenetic analysis of the identified GRAS proteins from tea plant, Arabidopsis, and rice divided these proteins into at least 13 subgroups. Conserved motif analysis revealed that the gene structure and motif compositions of the proteins were considerably conserved among the same subgroup. Functional divergence analysis indicated that the shifted evolutionary rate might act as a major evolutionary force driving subfamily-specific functional diversification. Transcriptome analysis showed that the transcriptional levels of CsGRAS genes under non-stress conditions varied among different tea plant cultivars. qRT-PCR analysis revealed tissue and development stage-specific expression patterns of CsGRAS genes in tea plant. The expression patterns of CsGRAS genes in response to abiotic stresses and gibberellin treatment suggested the possible multiple functions of these genes. This study provides insights into the potential functions of GRAS genes.
Highlights
Tea is a non-alcoholic beverage accepted by an increasing number of people because of its beneficial functional components[1]
The highly conserved C-terminus GRAS domain is constituted by five critical conserved motifs in the following order: LHR I, VHIID, LHR II, PFYRE, Tea Science Research Institute, College of Horticulture, Nanjing Agricultural University, Nanjing, 210095, China
In two tea plant cultivars, CsGRAS2 and CsGRAS7 showed relatively high expression levels in the roots; CsGRAS16 and CsGRAS19 were abundantly expressed in the buds; CsGRAS3 was highly expressed in the third leaf; CsGRAS8 was highly expressed in the stems and leaves and weakly expressed in the roots and buds
Summary
Tea is a non-alcoholic beverage accepted by an increasing number of people because of its beneficial functional components[1]. The active substances, such as tea polyphenols (especially catechins), caffeine, theanine, and polysaccharides, have been reported being a stimulant and an antioxidant, and reduce the frequency of cancers, and neurodegenerative diseases[2,3,4]. The name GRAS family TFs is derived from the first three isolated members, namely, GAI, RGA, and SCR24,25. It was initially taken as a plant-specific TF family. DELLA proteins contain two conserved motifs (DELLA and TVHYNP) in their N-terminal region
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