Abstract
The gibberellic acid-stimulated Arabidopsis (GASA/GAST) gene family is widely distributed in plants and involved in various physiological and biological processes. These genes also provide resistance to abiotic and biotic stresses, including antimicrobial, antiviral, and antifungal. We are interested in characterizing the GASA gene family and determining its role in various physiological and biological process in Theobroma cacao. Here, we report 17 tcGASA genes distributed on six chromosomes in T. cacao. The gene structure, promoter region, protein structure and biochemical properties, expression, and phylogenetics of all tcGASAs were analyzed. Phylogenetic analyses divided tcGASA proteins into five groups. Among 17 tcGASA genes, nine segmentally duplicating genes were identified which formed four pairs and cluster together in phylogenetic tree. Differential expression analyses revealed that most of the tcGASA genes showed elevated expression in the seeds (cacao food), implying their role in seed development. The differential expression of tcGASAs was recorded between the tolerant and susceptible cultivars of cacao, which indicating their possible role as fungal resistant. Our findings provide new insight into the function, evolution, and regulatory system of the GASA family genes in T.cacao and may suggest new target genes for development of fungi-resistant cacao varieties in breeding programs.
Highlights
Theobroma cacao L. belongs to the family Malvaceae [1]
These genes were named from tcGASA1 to tcGASA17 based on their distribution on chromosomes starting from chromosome 1
RNAseq data analyses explicated their possible roles in bean development, various abiotic stresses, and the biotic stress of P. megakarya
Summary
Theobroma cacao L. belongs to the family Malvaceae [1]. This is an economically important tree and grows in up to 50 countries located in the humid tropics [2]. Theobroma cacao L. seeds are enclosed in pods and are used for chocolate production, confectionery, and cosmetics [3]. This plant is adapted to high humidity areas, and is predisposed to various fungal diseases [4,5]. To the best of our knowledge, few gene families such as WRKY [7], sucrose synthase [8], Stearoyl-acyl carrier protein desaturase [9], sucrose transporter [10], and NAC [11] have been elucidated in Theobroma cacao
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