Abstract
BURP domain-containing proteins belong to a newly identified protein class that is unique to plants and plays an important role in plant development and metabolism. Although systematic characterization of BURP domain-containing proteins have been carried out in many species, such as rice, poplar and maize, little is known about BURP domain-containing proteins in Medicago. In this study, multiple bioinformatics approaches were employed to identify all the members of BURP family genes in Medicago. A complete set of 39 BURP family genes were identified. These genes have diverse structures and were distributed on chromosome 1–8 except 7. According to phylogenetic analysis, these BURP family genes could be classified into eight classes. Motif and exon-intron organization, stress-related cis-elements in promoter regions and microarray analysis of MtBURPs were also performed. Furthermore, transcript level analysis of MtBURP genes in response to drought stress revealed that all of the 39 BURP genes were regulated by drought stress. The results of this study reveal a comprehensive overview of the Medicago BURP gene family and provide the first step toward the selection of MtBURP genes for cloning and functional analysis of the BURP gene family in Medicago truncatula.
Highlights
The BURP domain is a conserved C-terminal protein domain whose name is based on four typical members, BNM2, USP, RD22, and PG1β
BNM2 is a protein expressed during microspore embryogenesis in oilseed rape (Boutilier et al, 1994); USPs, which are expressed during the early stages of zygotic (Bassüner et al, 1988) and in vitro embryogenesis (Chesnokov et al, 2002) in field bean; RD22 is a dehydration-responsive protein in Arabidopsis thaliana (Yamaguchi-Shinozaki and Shinozaki, 1993), and PG1β, a non-catalytic β-subunit of the polygalacturonase isozyme 1, which is expressed during the ripening of tomato (Solanum lycopersicum) (Zheng et al, 1992)
Analysis of BURP Genes in Medicago truncatula short segment; an optional segment consisting of repeated units, which is unique to each member of the BURP-domain-containing family, and the C-terminal BURP domain (Hattori et al, 1998)
Summary
The BURP domain is a conserved C-terminal protein domain whose name is based on four typical members, BNM2, USP, RD22, and PG1β. Analysis of BURP Genes in Medicago truncatula short segment; an optional segment consisting of repeated units, which is unique to each member of the BURP-domain-containing family, and the C-terminal BURP domain (Hattori et al, 1998). Based on phylogenetic analysis of the putative BURP domain-containing proteins in soybean and other plant species, the members of the BURP family are classified into the BNM2-like, USP-like, RD22-like and PG1β-like subfamilies (Granger et al, 2002). Differences among the BURP domaincontaining proteins mainly occur in a variable region between the hydrophobic signal sequence and the BURP domain (Ding et al, 2009) This region includes a short conserved segment and an optional segment consisting of repeated units which are absent in BNM2-like proteins. Both the USP-like and RD22-like proteins are distinguished from other subfamilies by the presence of a sequence segment containing approximately 30 amino acids, but the RD22-like proteins have a segment consisting of repeated units of approximately 20 amino acids, while the USPlike proteins do not contain such a segment (Granger et al, 2002)
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