Genome-Wide Bioinformatics Analysis of MAPK Gene Family in Kiwifruit (Actinidia Chinensis)

Abstract

Mitogen activated protein kinase (MAPK) cascades are universal signal transduction modules that play crucial roles in various biotic and abiotic stresses, hormones, cell division, and developmental processes in plants. Mitogen activated protein kinase (MAPK/MPK), being a part of this cascade, performs an important function for further appropriate cellular responses. Although MAPKs have been investigated in several model plants, no systematic analysis has been conducted in kiwifruit (Actinidia chinensis). In the present study, we identified 18 putative MAPKs in the kiwifruit genome. This gene family was analyzed bioinformatically in terms of their chromosome locations, sequence alignment, gene structures, and phylogenetic and conserved motifs. All members possess fully canonical motif structures of MAPK. Phylogenetic analysis indicated that AcMAPKs could be classified into five subfamilies, and these gene motifs in the same group showed high similarity. Gene structure analysis demonstrated that the number of exons in AcMAPK genes ranged from 2 to 29, suggesting large variation among kiwifruit MAPK genes. The expression profiles of these AcMAPK genes were further investigated using quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR), which demonstrated that AcMAPKs were induced or repressed by various biotic and abiotic stresses and hormone treatments, suggesting their potential roles in the biotic and abiotic stress response and various hormone signal transduction pathways in kiwifruit. The results of this study provide valuable insight into the putative physiological and biochemical functions of MAPK genes in kiwifruit.

Genome-Wide Identification and Characterization of the Cyclophilin Gene Family in the Nematophagous Fungus Purpureocillium lilacinum

“…In addition, three groups G, H, and I were found to possess all of the analyzed species, while the CYPs of Ascomycotina and Saccharomycotina fungi were clearly separated into two branches, suggesting evolutionary divergence between the two kinds of fungi. Motif and gene structure analysis is an effective tool that can be employed to understand sequence signatures in plant research [39,40,41]. The motif distributions and gene structures of fungal CYPs associated with the phylogenetic tree were exhibited.…”

Genome-Wide Characterization and Expression Profiling of Squamosa Promoter Binding Protein-Like (SBP) Transcription Factors in Wheat (Triticum aestivum L.)

“…The start and end location information of TaSBP genes were extracted from the genome reference GFF3 files. Then, these TaSBPs were separately assigned to wheat chromosomes based on their physical position and displayed using the software MapInspect Version 1.0 (http://www.softsea.com/review/ MapInspect.html) [54]. The common tool "all against all BLAST search" was used to determine possible paralogous or orthologous sequences among wheat and its subgenome donor with an E-value cutoff of 1 × 10 −10 , and identity > 75% [55].…”

The Function of MAPK Cascades in Response to Various Stresses in Horticultural Plants

“…MeMAPK1 showed upregulation at all treatment time points ( Yan et al., 2016 ). In kiwifruit, with high-salinity treatment, the expression of AcMAPK4 , AcMAPK5 , AcMAPK9 and AcMAPK12 was significantly upregulated at all treatment time points, indicating that these genes might be important regulators in response to salt stress ( Wang G. et al., 2018 ). Furthermore, in response to salt stress, the expression of five FvMAPK genes ( FvMAPK5 , FvMAPK9 , FvMAPK10 , FvMAPK11 and FvMAPK12 ) and three FvMAPKK genes ( FvMAPKK1 , FvMAPKK3 and FvMAPKK5 ) also increased in F. vesca , and the transcript levels of FvMAPKK3 in leaves were specifically activated by salt stress ( Zhou et al., 2017 ).…”