Genome-Wide Identification of the Thaumatin-like Protein Family Genes in Gossypium barbadense and Analysis of Their Responses to Verticillium dahliae Infection

Yilin Zhang,Xiaohui Sang,Yunlei Zhao,Haiyan Gong,Wei Chen,Ting Wang,Hongmei Wang,Pei Zhao

doi:10.3390/plants10122647

Yilin Zhang, Xiaohui Sang + Show 6 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.3390/plants10122647

Copy DOI

Abstract

(1) Background: Plants respond to pathogen challenge by activating a defense system involving pathogenesis-related (PR) proteins. The PR-5 family includes thaumatin, thaumatin-like proteins (TLPs), and other related proteins. TLPs play an important role in response to biotic and abiotic stresses. Many TLP-encoding genes have been identified and functionally characterized in the model plant species. (2) Results: We identified a total of 90 TLP genes in the G. barbadense genome. They were phylogenetically classified into 10 subfamilies and distributed across 19 chromosomes and nine scaffolds. The genes were characterized by examining their exon–intron structures, promoter cis-elements, conserved domains, synteny and collinearity, gene family evolution, and gene duplications. Several TLP genes were predicted to be targets of miRNAs. Investigation of expression changes of 21 GbTLPs in a G. barbadense cultivar (Hai7124) resistance to Verticillium dahliae revealed 13 GbTLPs being upregulated in response to V. dahliae infection, suggesting a potential role of these GbTLP genes in disease response. (3) Conclusions: The results of this study allow insight into the GbTLP gene family, identify GbTLP genes responsive to V. dahliae infection, and provide candidate genes for future studies of their roles in disease resistance.

Highlights

Plants are usually exposed to a wide range of pathogens throughout their life cycle, which often triggers complex defense mechanisms, such as upregulation of pathogenesisrelated (PR) genes in response to pathogen attacks
Using the hidden Markov model (HMM) profile of the thaumatin domain (PF00314) and the Thaumatin-like proteins (TLPs) sequences from Arabidopsis (n = 28) and O. sativa (31) as queries, a total of 90 predicted TLP gene sequences were identified from G. barbadense
We identified 90 putative GbTLP genes in the sea island cotton genome, which are distributed across 19 chromosomes and nine scaffolds and might be derived from polyploidization or segmental duplications

Summary

Introduction

Plants are usually exposed to a wide range of pathogens throughout their life cycle, which often triggers complex defense mechanisms, such as upregulation of pathogenesisrelated (PR) genes in response to pathogen attacks. Thaumatin-like proteins (TLPs) are a member of PR protein family 5 (PR-5 protein) and are identified by their highly conserved thaumatin domain. The majority of TLPs contain the following conserved family signature sequence: G-x-{GF}-x-C-x-T-{GA}-D-C-x(1,2)-{GQ}-x(2,3)-C [1,2]. They contain 16 conserved Cys residues and an REDDD (glutamic acid, arginine and three aspartic acid residues) structure. Typical TLPs have a three-dimensional structure which possesses three conserved domains, namely, I, II, and III, and forms a V-shaped acidic cleft on the surface, ensuring the catalytic function of TLPs [3,4]

Methods

Results

Discussion

Conclusion