Genome-Wide Identification and Expression Analysis of the BTB Domain-Containing Protein Gene Family in Sugar Beet

Qiao Yang,Xi Wang,Yanli Li,Yu Liu,Li Chen,Guangzhou Ding,Chunlei Zhao

doi:10.3390/agronomy12020253

Abstract

Cercospora leaf spots (CLSs) is a fungal disease of sugar beet caused by C. beticola, which damages leaves and leads to yield cut on sugar beet worldwide. BTB protein genes are critical to plant defense against bacterial infection. Here, 49 members of the BTB protein gene family were identified from the big data of the sugar beet genome, and bioinformatics was used to analyze the BTB protein family. Through molecular techniques, C. beticola of CLS was identified. In addition, the transcriptome data of sugar beet resistant and susceptible materials after C. beticola infection were obtained. Three BTB genes most significantly related to C. beticola stress were screened from the transcriptome data. The three genes are BvBTB1, BvBTB2, and BvBTB3, their full-length cDNA sequences were acquired by RT-PCR. The phenotypes of sugar beet resistant and susceptible materials under different spore concentrations of C. beticola were analyzed. Further, under the stress of C. beticola, qRT-PCR results showed that the expression levels of BvBTB1, BvBTB2, and BvBTB3 in roots and leaves were tissue-specific and expressed differently in various tissues. BvBTB1, BvBTB2, and BvBTB3 were overexpressed in the resistant and susceptible materials within five days after C. beticola infection: the peak appeared on the fifth day, and the highest expression was 25 times that of the control group. However, the lowest was 1.1 times of the control group, moreover, the expression in the resistant material was higher than that in the susceptible material. Overall, these results showed that BvBTB genes were involved in the response in sugar beet to C. beticola infection. Therefore, the study provided a scientific theoretical basis for developing new resistant varieties in sugar beet.

Highlights

The BTB protein family is a new protein family, and it has been found in plants in recent years
NPR1 was first cloned from Arabidopsis [5,6,7,8], and it has been shown that overexpression of NPR1 can improve disease resistance
The highly expressed AtNPR1 gene was introduced into common wheat, in order to obtain transgenic a transgenic wheat strain with significantly improved sharp eyespot resistance, a highly expressed AtNPR1 gene was driven by the ubiquitin promoter, which further verified the important role of AtNPR1 gene in plant disease resistance [11]

Summary

Introduction

The BTB protein family is a new protein family, and it has been found in plants in recent years. The BTB protein family has performed an important role in plant growth and development, disease resistance, stress resistance, protein ubiquitination and degradation, cytoskeleton composition, ion channel and cell cycle regulation [2,3,4]. NPR1 regulated systemic acquired resistance (SAR) in Arabidopsis, the interaction between nuclear localized NPR1 and TGA transcription factors, led to the activation of defense genes. Overexpression of AtNPR1 in monocotyledonous plants improved the ability to resist pathogens, which suggested that monocotyledons and dicotyledons may have the same NPR1 disease resistance regulation pathway. The highly expressed AtNPR1 gene was introduced into common wheat, in order to obtain transgenic a transgenic wheat strain with significantly improved sharp eyespot resistance, a highly expressed AtNPR1 gene was driven by the ubiquitin promoter, which further verified the important role of AtNPR1 gene in plant disease resistance [11]. Overexpression of GmBTB can improve the resistance to Phytophthora sojae [5]

Methods

Results

Discussion

Conclusion