Abstract
BackgroundPhospholipase A (PLA) is an important group of enzymes responsible for phospholipid hydrolysis in lipid signaling. PLAs have been implicated in abiotic stress signaling and developmental events in various plants species. Genome-wide analysis of PLA superfamily has been carried out in dicot plant Arabidopsis. A comprehensive genome-wide analysis of PLAs has not been presented yet in crop plant rice.Methodology/Principal FindingsA comprehensive bioinformatics analysis identified a total of 31 PLA encoding genes in the rice genome, which are divided into three classes; phospholipase A1 (PLA1), patatin like phospholipases (pPLA) and low molecular weight secretory phospholipase A2 (sPLA2) based on their sequences and phylogeny. A subset of 10 rice PLAs exhibited chromosomal duplication, emphasizing the role of duplication in the expansion of this gene family in rice. Microarray expression profiling revealed a number of PLA members expressing differentially and significantly under abiotic stresses and reproductive development. Comparative expression analysis with Arabidopsis PLAs revealed a high degree of functional conservation between the orthologs in two plant species, which also indicated the vital role of PLAs in stress signaling and plant development across different plant species. Moreover, sub-cellular localization of a few candidates suggests their differential localization and functional role in the lipid signaling.Conclusion/SignificanceThe comprehensive analysis and expression profiling would provide a critical platform for the functional characterization of the candidate PLA genes in crop plants.
Highlights
Plants often encounter abiotic stresses such as high salinity, dehydration and low temperature during their life span
We have identified the complement of Phospholipase A (PLA) coding genes in the rice genome, which are found to be distributed into three main classes; phospholipase A1 (PLA1), pPLA and secretory phospholipase A2 (sPLA2) based on the domain structures, conserved motifs and phylogenetic analysis
Identification and organization of PLAs in the rice genome All the approaches employed for the mining of PLA encoding genes in the rice genome fetched a total of 31 genes
Summary
Plants often encounter abiotic stresses such as high salinity, dehydration and low temperature during their life span. These abiotic stresses impose adverse growth conditions, which affect the plant development, longevity and productivity. Recent findings propose an integral place for lipid signaling in complex regulatory network in response to abiotic stresses in plants [5,6,7,8]. Phospholipases are of utmost importance in lipid signaling as they are the essential enzymes for the catalysis of the initial step of phospholipids hydrolysis. Phospholipase A (PLA) is an important group of enzymes responsible for phospholipid hydrolysis in lipid signaling. PLAs have been implicated in abiotic stress signaling and developmental events in various plants species. A comprehensive genome-wide analysis of PLAs has not been presented yet in crop plant rice
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