Genome-Wide Identification of the Tify Gene Family and Their Expression Profiles in Response to Biotic and Abiotic Stresses in Tea Plants (Camellia sinensis).

Songbo Lin,Xiaoling Sun,Xin Zhang,Jin Zhang,Wei Ran,Xiwang Li,Riffat Sultana,Meng Ye

doi:10.3390/ijms21218316

Abstract

The TIFY family is a plant-specific gene family that is involved in regulating a variety of plant processes, including developmental and defense responses. The chromosome-level genome of the tea plant (Camellia sinensis) has recently been released, but a comprehensive view of the TIFY family in C. sinensis (the CsTIFY genes) is lacking. The current study performed an extensive genome-wide identification of CsTIFY genes. The phylogenetics, chromosome location, exon/intron structure, and conserved domains of these genes were analyzed to characterize the members of the CsTIFY family. The expression profiles of the CsTIFY genes in four organs were analyzed, and they showed different spatial expression patterns. All CsJAZ genes were observed to be induced by jasmonate acid (JA) and exhibited different responses to abiotic and biotic stresses. Six of seven CsJAZ genes (CsJAZ1, CsJAZ2, CsJAZ3, CsJAZ4, CsJAZ7, and CsJAZ8) were upregulated by mechanical wounding and infestation with the tea geometrid (Ectropis obliqua), while infection with tea anthracnose (Colletotrichum camelliae) primarily upregulated the expression levels of CsJAZ1 and CsJAZ10. In addition, CsJAZs were observed to interact with CsMYC2 and AtMYC2. Therefore, the results of this study may contribute to the functional characterization of the CsTIFY genes, especially the members of the JAZ subfamily, as regulators of the JA-mediated defense response in tea plant.

Highlights

The TIFY family is a plant-specific gene family that was first discovered in Arabidopsis, and this family is named after the highly conserved TIFY domain, which was previously known as ZIM [1,2,3,4,5]
All 16 TIFY family members in tea plants were named according to the existing numbering system described in Arabidopsis and the phylogenetic analysis with AtTIFY and AtJAZ proteins described below (Figure 1 and Supplementary Figure S1)
The coding sequences (CDSs) of the CsTIFY genes ranged from 411 bp (CsJAZ7) to 1197 bp (CsJAZ3 and CsJAZ4) with predicted proteins of 136 to 398 amino acids

Summary

Introduction

The TIFY family is a plant-specific gene family that was first discovered in Arabidopsis, and this family is named after the highly conserved TIFY domain, which was previously known as ZIM (zinc-finger protein expressed in inflorescence meristem) [1,2,3,4,5]. According to the diverse domain structure, the TIFY family can be divided into four major subfamilies, including ZML (ZIM/ZIM-like), PPD (PEAPOD), JAZ (jasmonate–ZIM-domain) and TIFY [6]. ZML subfamily proteins have a C2C2-GATA zinc finger domain responding for DNA binding and a CCT (CONSTANS/CO-like/TOC1) domain involved in protein–protein interaction. The JAZ subfamily contains another conserved sequence, the Jas motif (CCT_2 domain), which is similar to the N-terminal sequence of the CCT domain and is characterized by SLX2FX2KRX2RX5PY in the C-terminus. The ZML subfamily belongs to Group I, while the JAZ, PPD, and TIFY subfamilies belong to Group II [9,10]

Methods

Results

Conclusion