Abstract
Sesame is an ancient oilseed crop, known for its high oil content and quality. Its sensitivity to drought at early seedling stage is one of the limiting factors affecting its world-wide growth and productivity. Among plant specific transcription factors, the association of HD-ZIPs with sesame drought responses at early seedling stage is not well-established yet and is very important to develop our molecular understanding on sesame drought tolerance. In this study, total 61 sesame HD-ZIP proteins were identified, based on their protein sequence homology with Arabidopsis and protein domain(s) architecture prediction, followed by their phylogenetic, conserved domain(s) motifs and gene structure analyses to classify them into four classes (HD-ZIP Class I-IV). HD-ZIP Class I was also subdivided into four subgroups: α (SiHZ25, SiHZ43, SiHZ9 and SiHZ16), β1 (SiHZ10, SiHZ30, SiHZ32 and SiHZ26), β2 (SiHZ42 and SiHZ45) and γ (SiHZ17, SiHZ7 and SiHZ35) by a comparative phylogenetic analysis of sesame with Arabidopsis and maize. Afterwards, twenty-one days old sesame seedlings were exposed to drought stress by withholding water for 7 days (when soil moisture content reduced to ~16%) and gene expression of HD-ZIP Class I (13 members) was performed in well- watered (control) and drought stressed seedlings. The gene expression analysis showed that the expressions of SiHZ7 (6.8 fold) and SiHZ35 (2.6 fold) from γ subgroup were significantly high in drought seedlings. This study is useful in demonstrating the role of SiHD-ZIP Class I in sesame drought responses at early seedling stage and to develop its novel drought tolerant varieties.
Highlights
Sesame (Sesamum indicum L., 2n= 26) is a very ancient oil seed crop [1]
Total 61 well-annotated Homeodomain-leucine zipper (HD-ZIP) proteins were predicted in sesame genome
Based on the phylogenetic analysis, the identified HD-ZIP protein sequences were classified into four classes
Summary
Sesame (Sesamum indicum L., 2n= 26) is a very ancient oil seed crop [1]. It is lauded as the “Queen of Seeds”as its seeds are a rich source of high quality and highly stable edible oil (50-60%) [2]. Sesame (Sesamum indicum L., 2n= 26) is a very ancient oil seed crop [1]. It is lauded as the “Queen of Seeds”. As its seeds are a rich source of high quality and highly stable edible oil (50-60%) [2]. Sesame is cultivated in arid and semi-arid lands, but its growth and yield are substantially reduced as compared to other economically important oil crops (e.g. rapeseed, peanut and soya bean) due to high temperatures and episodic/terminal drought conditions [6, 7]. Sesame is a well-known “survivor” or “drought tolerant” oil crop yet it is highly sensitive to drought, at germination and flowering (anthesis) stage, which affect its growth and yield [3]
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