Molecular Characterization, Gene Evolution and Expression Analysis of the F-Box Gene Family in Tomato (Solanum lycopersicum).

Fulei Mo,Mozhen Cheng,Youwen Qiu,Lingjun Meng,Aoxue Wang,Jiayin Liu,Xiuling Chen,Rui Lv,Nian Zhang,Yuxin Liu,Yao Zhang,Lanning Yao

doi:10.3390/genes12030417

Abstract

F-box genes play an important role in the growth and development of plants, but there are few studies on its role in a plant’s response to abiotic stresses. In order to further study the functions of F-box genes in tomato (Solanum lycopersicum, Sl), a total of 139 F-box genes were identified in the whole genome of tomato using bioinformatics methods, and the basic information, transcript structure, conserved motif, cis-elements, chromosomal location, gene evolution, phylogenetic relationship, expression patterns and the expression under cold stress, drought stress, jasmonic acid (JA) treatment and salicylic acid (SA) treatment were analyzed. The results showed that SlFBX genes were distributed on 12 chromosomes of tomato and were prone to TD (tandem duplication) at the ends of chromosomes. WGD (whole genome duplication), TD, PD (proximal duplication) and TRD (transposed duplication) modes seem play an important role in the expansion and evolution of tomato SlFBX genes. The most recent divergence occurred 1.3042 million years ago, between SlFBX89 and SlFBX103. The cis-elements in SlFBX genes’ promoter regions were mainly responded to phytohormone and abiotic stress. Expression analysis based on transcriptome data and qRT-PCR (Real-time quantitative PCR) analysis of SlFBX genes showed that most SlFBX genes were differentially expressed under abiotic stress. SlFBX24 was significantly up-regulated at 12 h under cold stress. This study reported the SlFBX gene family of tomato for the first time, providing a theoretical basis for the detailed study of SlFBX genes in the future, especially the function of SlFBX genes under abiotic stress.

Highlights

The F-box gene family is one of the most abundant and versatile families in plants. [1,2]
The tomato variety Glamour was planted in the growth chamber of the Northeast Agricultural University, with a light intensity of 120 μM photons m−2 s−1, photoperiod 16 h, day/night temperature 22/18 ◦C, stress treatment with cold and drought, the methods for stress treatment are shown in Zhou et al [27], 100 mM salicylic acid (SA) and jasmonic acid (JA) were used to treat the 27-day-old plants, each solution was sprayed evenly over each blade and stop spraying before the solution drips from the leaf
The results showed that the SlFBX gene family had many members, and the differences among the members, such as the length of the coding amino acid, isoelectric point and molecular weight, were all significantly different

Summary

Introduction

The F-box gene family is one of the most abundant and versatile families in plants. [1,2]. In the process of biological development and evolution, organisms have possessed many kinds of regulatory mechanisms to respond to external environmental stimuli. The F-box protein family is very large, their functions are diverse They are mainly distributed in eukaryotes which main take part in the protein degradation in eukaryotes. The process of F-box degradation of most foreign proteins is mainly through the ubiquitin-proteasome pathway (UPP). The main proteolytic mechanism in eukaryotes is through this pathway [9] Cells use this process to quickly respond the changes in intracellular signals and environmental stimuli. The F-box protein plays a key role in the growth and development of plants and the regulatory response to the living environment and endogenous signals

Methods

Results

Discussion

Conclusion