Abstract

In plant cells, calcium-dependent protein kinases (CDPKs) are important sensors of Ca2+ flux resulting from various environmental stresses like cold, drought or salt stress. Previous genome sequence analysis and comparative studies in Arabidopsis (Arabidopsis thaliana L.) and rice (Oryza sativa L.) defined a multi-gene family of CDPKs. Here, we identified and characterised the CDPK gene complement of the model plant, barley (Hordeum vulgare L.). Comparative analysis encompassed phylogeny reconstruction based on newly available barley genome sequence, as well as established model genomes (e.g. O. sativa, A. thaliana, Brachypodium distachyon). Functional gene copies possessed characteristic CDPK domain architecture, including a serine/threonine kinase domain and four regulatory EF-hand motifs. In silico verification was followed by measurements of transcript abundance via real-time polymerase chain reaction (PCR). The relative expression of CDPK genes was determined in the vegetative growth stage under intensifying drought stress conditions. The majority of barley CDPK genes showed distinct changes in patterns of expression during exposure to stress. Our study constitutes evidence for involvement of the barley CDPK gene complement in signal transduction pathways relating to adaptation to drought. Our bioinformatics and transcriptomic analyses will provide an important foundation for further functional dissection of the barley CDPK gene family.

Highlights

  • One of the major features common to all organisms is the use of signal transduction pathways to control their metabolism and adapt to the changing environment

  • We revealed the significant differences in transcript levels of specific calcium-dependent protein kinases (CDPKs) genes which implies their involvement in adaptation to drought stress

  • The barley CDPK gene complement was annotated by using the BLASTn (Altschul et al 1990) algorithm to search the Ensembl Plants database, as well as the FLcDNAs of the H. vulgare ‘Haruna Nijo’ cultivar expressed under normal and stressed conditions (Matsumoto et al 2011) found in NCBI/GenBank (National Center for Biotechnology Information; http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov)

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Summary

Introduction

One of the major features common to all organisms is the use of signal transduction pathways to control their metabolism and adapt to the changing environment. The concentration of free, cytosolic Ca2+ in plant cells fluctuates in response to different stimuli, including hormones, pathogens, light and abiotic stresses (Evans et al 2001; Sanders et al 2002). These and other signals induce spatial and temporal Ca2+ spikes, as well as changes in the frequency and amplitude of Ca2+ oscillations. One of the largest and most differentiated group of calcium sensors are protein kinases, among them calciumdependent protein kinases (CDPKs), which have been identified only in plants and protists (Harmon et al 2000)

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