Abstract
Ankyrin repeat (ANK) proteins are essential in cell growth, development, and response to hormones and environmental stresses. In the present study, 226 ANK genes were identified and classified into nine subfamilies according to conserved domains in the soybean genome (Glycine max L.). Among them, the GmANK114 was highly induced by drought, salt, and abscisic acid. The GmANK114 encodes a protein that belongs to the ANK-RF subfamily containing a RING finger (RF) domain in addition to the ankyrin repeats. Heterologous overexpression of GmANK114 in transgenic Arabidopsis improved the germination rate under drought and salt treatments compared to wild-type. Homologous overexpression of GmANK114 improved the survival rate under drought and salt stresses in transgenic soybean hairy roots. In response to drought or salt stress, GmANK114 overexpression in soybean hairy root showed higher proline and lower malondialdehyde contents, and lower H2O2 and O2– contents compared control plants. Besides, GmANK114 activated transcription of several abiotic stress-related genes, including WRKY13, NAC11, DREB2, MYB84, and bZIP44 under drought and salt stresses in soybean. These results provide new insights for functional analysis of soybean ANK proteins and will be helpful for further understanding how ANK proteins in plants adapt to abiotic stress.
Highlights
In recent years, various abiotic stresses, especially drought and salt, became more and more frequent with global climate change
The Ankyrin repeat (ANK) domain (PF00023) was used as a query and searched in several databases including Phytozome, NCBI, Pfam, and SMART, a total of 226 genes encoding ANK proteins were identified in soybean
The number of introns in these genes ranged from 0 (GmANK9, GmANK12 and GmANK14) to 21 (GmANK53) (Supplementary Figure 1). These results suggested that members of the GmANK family might be active and constantly evolving
Summary
Various abiotic stresses, especially drought and salt, became more and more frequent with global climate change. To adapt to the changing environments, plants induce the expression of stress-related genes by receiving external signals and undergoing a series of complex signal transduction pathways and diverse response mechanisms, Soybean ANK Genes thereby reducing the damage of abiotic stresses on their growth and development (Chen and Murata, 2011; Wang et al, 2015; Zhu, 2016; Qi et al, 2018; Yang and Guo, 2018). ANK proteins are directly involved in the development of cancer. The human VBARP is thought to be involved with cellular apoptosis (anti-apoptotic) and cell survival pathways (Miles et al, 2005)
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