Abstract
Mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) cascades are highly conserved signaling modules in eukaryotes, including yeasts, plants and animals. MAPK cascades are responsible for protein phosphorylation during signal transduction events, and typically consist of three protein kinases: MAPK, MAPK kinase, and MAPK kinase kinase. In this current study, we identified a total of 12 FvMAPK, 7 FvMAPKK, 73 FvMAPKKK, and one FvMAPKKKK genes in the recently published Fragaria vesca genome sequence. This work reported the classification, annotation and phylogenetic evaluation of these genes and an assessment of conserved motifs and the expression profiling of members of the gene family were also analyzed here. The expression profiles of the MAPK and MAPKK genes in different organs and fruit developmental stages were further investigated using quantitative real-time reverse transcription PCR (qRT-PCR). Finally, the MAPK and MAPKK expression patterns in response to hormone and abiotic stresses (salt, drought, and high and low temperature) were investigated in fruit and leaves of F. vesca. The results provide a platform for further characterization of the physiological and biochemical functions of MAPK cascades in strawberry.
Highlights
Plants are influenced by different biotic or abiotic stresses, in response have developed a few signaling networks to protect them at the molecular or cellular levels [1]
The protein-kinase-based cascades associated with responses to extracellular stimuli are the mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) cascades, which are conserved components of signal transduction pathways in eukaryotes ranging from yeast to plants and animals [3,4,5,6]
MAPK cascades involve protein phosphorylation events that contribute to signaling [3], and acknowledged eukaryotic MAPKs can be separated into three main subfamilies according to their structural characteristics, which is often related to their functions in various signal transduction pathways
Summary
Plants are influenced by different biotic or abiotic stresses, in response have developed a few signaling networks to protect them at the molecular or cellular levels [1]. The identification and characterization of different members of the MAPK cascades have been reported by functional genomic studies in various plant species, including A. thaliana, maize, rice, alfalfa, tobacco and grapevine (Vitis vinifera). They comprise complex gene families, which have been best studied in model plants, such as A. thaliana and rice [1,3,5,38,39,40,41]. We evaluated the expression patterns of all of the predicted members of the FvMAPK and FvMAPKK subfamily in different strawberry organs and developmental stages. AtMKK1/AtMKK2, which are activated by salt, drought, and cold stresses [22,23], and their ortholog FvMAPKK3, showed specific activation by salt stress in leaves and significant expression changes due to cold and heat stress
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