Genome-wide identification and expression analysis of the calmodulin-binding transcription activator (CAMTA) gene family in wheat (Triticum aestivum L.)

Fan Yang,Meng-Yu Lv,He Zhao,Fu-Shuang Dong,Yong-Wei Liu,Jian-Fang Chai,Fang-Hui Hu,Shuo Zhou

doi:10.1186/s12863-020-00916-5

Abstract

BackgroundPlant calmodulin-binding transcription activator (CAMTA) proteins play important roles in hormone signal transduction, developmental regulation, and environmental stress tolerance. However, in wheat, the CAMTA gene family has not been systematically characterized.ResultsIn this work, 15 wheat CAMTA genes were identified using a genome-wide search method. Their chromosome location, physicochemical properties, subcellular localization, gene structure, protein domain, and promoter cis-elements were systematically analyzed. Phylogenetic analysis classified the TaCAMTA genes into three groups (groups A, B, and C), numbered 7, 6, and 2, respectively. The results showed that most TaCAMTA genes contained stress-related cis-elements. Finally, to obtain tissue-specific and stress-responsive candidates, the expression profiles of the TaCAMTAs in various tissues and under biotic and abiotic stresses were investigated. Tissue-specific expression analysis showed that all of the 15 TaCAMTA genes were expressed in multiple tissues with different expression levels, as well as under abiotic stress, the expressions of each TaCAMTA gene could respond to at least one abiotic stress. It also found that 584 genes in wheat genome were predicted to be potential target genes by CAMTA, demonstrating that CAMTA can be widely involved in plant development and growth, as well as coping with stresses.ConclusionsThis work systematically identified the CAMTA gene family in wheat at the whole-genome-wide level, providing important candidates for further functional analysis in developmental regulation and the stress response in wheat.

Highlights

Plant calmodulin-binding transcription activator (CAMTA) proteins play important roles in hormone signal transduction, developmental regulation, and environmental stress tolerance
Since the TaCAMTA genes were clustered into six homoeologous groups, these genes were designated as TaCAMTA1 to TaCAMTA6 according to their homology with rice CAMTA genes, plus a suffix corresponding to the specific wheat genome identifier (A, B, or D) for each gene name (Table 1, Fig. 1)
The results showed that TaCAMTA1, 2, 3, and 4 contained three homolog genes (TaCAMTA1-A/B/D, 2A/B/D, 3-A/B/D, and 4-A/B/D), while TaCAMTA5 harbored two (TaCAMTA5-A/D), and TaCAMTA6 possessed one (TaCAMTA6-B)

Summary

Introduction

Plant calmodulin-binding transcription activator (CAMTA) proteins play important roles in hormone signal transduction, developmental regulation, and environmental stress tolerance. Plant CaMs can regulate at least 90 transcription factors, including calmodulin-binding transcription activators (CAMTAs) [4]. CAMTA proteins are characterized by several conserved domains, including a unique DNA-binding domain (CG1), a transcription factor immunoglobulin-like DNAbinding domain (TIG), ankyrin repeats (ANK), IQ motifs (IQXXXRGXXXR), and a Ca2+-dependent calmodulinbinding domain (CaMBD) [5,6,7]. The CAMTA gene family has been identified in a wide variety of plant species, such as Arabidopsis (Arabidopsis thaliana, six members) [7], tomato (Solanum lycopersicum, seven members) [8], rice (Oryza sativa, seven members) [9], grape (Vitis vinifera, 10 members) [10], maize (Zea mays, nine members) [11], soybean (Glycine max, 15 members) [12], rape (Brassica napus, 18 members) [13], alfalfa (Medicago sativa, seven members) [14], poplar (Populus trichocarpa, seven members) [4], and citrus (Citrus sinensis and Citrus clementina, nine members) [15]

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Conclusion