Genome-wide identification and expression analysis of SnRK2 gene family in mungbean (Vigna radiata) in response to drought stress

Abstract

Drought stress causes lower crop production globally. Plants have acquired many adaptations to overcome drought stress. Mungbean (Vigna radiata (L.) R.Wilczek) is a legume crop widely cultivated in South, East and Southeast Asia. It is grown in high-temperature areas where drought is the main cause of reduced plant growth and productivity. Plants cope with drought stress by activating different signalling mechanisms. The sucrose non-fermenting-1-related protein kinase 2 family (SnRK2s) is known to play vital roles in osmotic stress and in abscisic acid (ABA) signalling pathways by phosphorylating downstream targets. The genes encoding SnRK2s in mungbean and their detailed characterisation remain unexplored. We have conducted extensive genome-wide analysis for gene prediction, in silico gene analysis, evolutionary analysis and gene-expression profiling under drought-stress conditions by quantitative real-time PCR. Through genome-wide analysis, eight SnRK2 genes were predicted in the mungbean genome and were assigned the names VrSnRK2.1–VrSnRK2.8, according to their order on the chromosomes. The VrSnRK2 genes identified were classified into three clusters based on their phylogenetic relationship with those of Arabidopsis thaliana. Drought stress was imposed on 11-day-old mungbean plants by completely withholding water for 3 days. According to real-time qPCR data, the expression of most of the VrSnRK2 genes was induced by drought stress, indicating their role in the drought-stress response. One of the genes, namely SnRK2.6c, showed highest expression level (12-fold) under drought stress, possibly indicating a critical role under water-deficit conditions. These data provide important information about the VrSnRK2 gene family in mungbean. The results will help in future functional characterisation of VrSnRK2 genes.

Combined Analysis of Pharmaceutical Active Ingredients and Transcriptomes of Glycyrrhiza uralensis Under PEG6000-Induced Drought Stress Revealed Glycyrrhizic Acid and Flavonoids Accumulation via JA-Mediated Signaling

“…Some reports support that SnRK2 in the ABA signaling pathway plays an important role in regulating flavonoid synthesis in plants under abiotic stress ( Boudsocq et al, 2004 ; Kobayashi et al, 2004 ; Jiao and Gu, 2019 ). There is also solid evidence that SnRK2 and ABF performed important function in controlling the downstream gene expressions under abiotic stress ( Fujii et al, 2011 ; Kulik et al, 2011 ; Fujita et al, 2013 ; Yoshida et al, 2015 ; Fatima et al, 2020 ). SnRK2 and ABF were identified as the most significant enriched UDEGs and showed high expression levels under drought stress ( Figures 2 , 5 ), suggesting their potential important function in ABA signal transduction and regulation of secondary compound generation.…”

Genome-Wide Identification and Expression Analysis of SnRK2 Gene Family in Dormant Vegetative Buds of Liriodendron chinense in Response to Abscisic Acid, Chilling, and Photoperiod

“…There are numerous forms of unfavorable environmental conditions to which plants are subjected. Plants can mitigate the negative impacts of extreme environmental conditions by utilizing various morphological, physiological, and molecular defense mechanisms [ 25 , 60 ]. According to Gillebert et al [ 61 ], protein-kinase-mediated phosphorylation is crucial for reducing ecological pressures, and the SnRK2 genes, as well-known members of the serine-threonine protein kinase subfamily, are essential for combating environmental challenges such as drought [ 62 , 63 ].…”

“…Five distinct SnRK2 genes were detected in the L. chinense genome by genome-wide analysis in the current study. This is fewer than the number of SnRK2 genes found in other plant species, such as 20 in cotton [ 22 ], 22 in N. tabacum [ 23 ], 10 in arabidopsis [ 24 ], 10 in rice [ 21 ], eight in mungbean [ 25 ], eight in grapevine [ 26 ], 11 in maize [ 27 ], 10 in sugarcane [ 28 ], 10 in sorghum [ 29 ], nine in pepper [ 13 ], and 12 in apple [ 30 ]. According to published research, 8 to 22 SnRK2 genes have been reported for several plant species.…”

“…Based on sequence similarity and C-terminal domain structural characteristics, the SnRK family in higher plants is divided into three subfamilies ( SnRKl , SnRK2 , and SnRK3 ) [ 13 , 20 , 21 ]. Many plant genomes have been found to contain the SnRK2 gene family, including in pepper [ 14 ], rice [ 21 ], cotton [ 22 ], Nicotiana tabacum [ 23 ], arabidopsis [ 24 ], mungbean [ 25 ], grapevine [ 26 ], maize [ 27 ], sugarcane [ 28 ], sorghum [ 29 ], and apple [ 30 ]. Despite this fact, only a tiny portion of the SnRK2 gene has been characterized.…”

Physiological responses and expression of VrDREB2A gene at different growth stages of mungbean (Vigna radiata L. Wilczek) under drought stress

“…ThDREB expression levels in root and stem of Tamarix hispida were around 369-fold of control under NaCl stress for 6 h and 6-fold of control under PEG stress for 12 h (Yang et al 2017). The expression of other drought tolerant related gene in mungbean, VrSnRK2.6c, showed the highest level (12-fold) when 11-day-old mungbean plants exposed to 3 days withholding water (Fatima et al 2020). The upregulation of VrDREB in drought tolerant mungbean was also observed during recovery from drought and higher in leaf than in petiole (Meena et al 2021).…”