Abstract
Sucrose synthase (SS) is widely considered as the key enzyme involved in the plant sugar metabolism that is critical to plant growth and development, especially quality of the fruit. The members of SS gene family have been identified and characterized in multiple plant genomes. However, detailed information about this gene family is lacking in grapevine (Vitis vinifera L.). In this study, we performed a systematic analysis of the grape (V. vinifera) genome and reported that there are five SS genes (VvSS1–5) in the grape genome. Comparison of the structures of grape SS genes showed high structural conservation of grape SS genes, resulting from the selection pressures during the evolutionary process. The segmental duplication of grape SS genes contributed to this gene family expansion. The syntenic analyses between grape and soybean (Glycine max) demonstrated that these genes located in corresponding syntenic blocks arose before the divergence of grape and soybean. Phylogenetic analysis revealed distinct evolutionary paths for the grape SS genes. VvSS1/VvSS5, VvSS2/VvSS3 and VvSS4 originated from three ancient SS genes, which were generated by duplication events before the split of monocots and eudicots. Bioinformatics analysis of publicly available microarray data, which was validated by quantitative real-time reverse transcription PCR (qRT-PCR), revealed distinct temporal and spatial expression patterns of VvSS genes in various tissues, organs and developmental stages, as well as in response to biotic and abiotic stresses. Taken together, our results will be beneficial for further investigations into the functions of SS gene in the processes of grape resistance to environmental stresses.
Highlights
Sucrose is an essential element of life cycle in higher plants
We identified five non-redundant sucrose synthase genes in the three grapevine genome database, the five SS genes (VIT_204s0079g00230, VIT_205s0077g01930, VIT_207s0005g00750, VIT_211s0016g00470 and VIT_217s0053g00700) were found in the V2.1 grape genome database hosted at CRIBI, and the corresponding five SS genes (LOC100266759, LOC100243135, LOC100267606, LOC100249279 and LOC100252799) were found in the NCBI
Based on the genome of V. vinifera [42], and the facts that grape SS family was distributed on five chromosomes (Figure 2), our phylogenetic analysis, the exon/intron structure, and VvSS2 and VvSS3 located in systemic blocks, we propose an interpretation of evolutionary history of the grape SS genes
Summary
Sucrose is an essential element of life cycle in higher plants. It is mainly produced by photosynthesis in source tissues and is exported to sink tissues where it serves as a carbon source of energy for various metabolic pathways [1,2]. When suffering from environmental stress such as cold, drought and salt stress, the accumulation of sucrose protects the stability of both membranes and proteins in plant cells. It has been recognized that sucrose can act as important signal in plants to modulate a wide range of processes through regulating the expression level of genes encoding enzymes, storage and transporter proteins [5,6,7,8]. The study of the sucrose metabolism is pivotal in understanding various sides of plant physiology
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