Abstract

BackgroundPlant non-specific lipid transfer proteins (nsLTPs) are small, basic proteins that are abundant in higher plants. They have been reported to play an important role in various plant physiological processes, such as lipid transfer, signal transduction, and pathogen defense. To date, a comprehensive analysis of the potato nsLTP gene family is still lacking after the completion of potato (Solanum tuberosum L.) genome sequencing. A genome-wide characterization, classification and expression analysis of the StnsLTP gene family was performed in this study.ResultsIn this study, a total of 83 nsLTP genes were identified and categorized into eight types based on Boutrot’s method. Multiple characteristics of these genes, including phylogeny, gene structures, conserved motifs, protein domains, chromosome locations, and cis-elements in the promoter sequences, were analyzed. The chromosome distribution and the collinearity analyses suggested that the expansion of the StnsLTP gene family was greatly enhanced by the tandem duplications. Ka/Ks analysis showed that 47 pairs of duplicated genes tended to undergo purifying selection during evolution. Moreover, the expression of StnsLTP genes in various tissues was analyzed by using RNA-seq data and verified by quantitative real-time PCR, revealing that the StnsLTP genes were mainly expressed in younger tissues. These results indicated that StnsLTPs may played significant and functionally varied roles in the development of different tissues.ConclusionIn this study, we comprehensively analyzed nsLTPs in potato, providing valuable information to better understand the functions of StnsLTPs in different tissues and pathways, especially in response to abiotic stress.

Highlights

  • Plant non-specific lipid transfer proteins are small, basic proteins that are abundant in higher plants

  • Genome-wide identification of StnsLTP genes To identify all StnsLTP genes in potato, four bioinformatics methods were used in this study

  • 77, 33, 54, and 128 StnsLTP genes were identified by keyword search, local BlastP search, local tBlastn search, and Hidden markov model (HMM) search, respectively

Read more

Summary

Introduction

Plant non-specific lipid transfer proteins (nsLTPs) are small, basic proteins that are abundant in higher plants. Plant non-specific lipid transfer proteins (nsLTPs) were first discovered approximately 35 years ago from spinach leaves [1]. Plant nsLTPs are small, basic proteins with a size of approximately 6.5 to 10.5 kDa, which all have an eight cysteine motif (ECM) [3]. These cysteine residues can be connected by four disulfide bonds to form a stable hydrophobic cavity structure [4, 5]. According to their molecular masses, the nsLTP proteins were initially divided into two types: nsLTP1 (9 kDa) and nsLTP2 (7 kDa) [1]. The new classification method is not based on molecular size, but rather on the locations of conserved introns, the identity of amino acid sequences, and the

Methods
Results
Discussion
Conclusion
Full Text
Published version (Free)

Talk to us

Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have

Schedule a call