In silico identification of known osmotic stress responsive genes from Arabidopsis in soybean and Medicago

Abstract

Plants experience various environmental stresses, but tolerance to these adverse conditions is a very complex phenomenon. The present research aimed to evaluate a set of genes involved in osmotic response, comparing soybean and medicago with the well-described Arabidopsis thaliana model plant. Based on 103 Arabidopsis proteins from 27 categories of osmotic stress response, comparative analyses against Genosoja and Medicago truncatula databases allowed the identification of 1,088 soybean and 1,210 Medicago sequences. The analysis showed a high number of sequences and high diversity, comprising genes from all categories in both organisms. Genes with unknown function were among the most representative, followed by transcription factors, ion transport proteins, water channel, plant defense, protein degradation, cellular structure, organization & biogenesis and senescence. An analysis of sequences with unknown function allowed the annotation of 174 soybean and 217 Medicago sequences, most of them concerning transcription factors. However, for about 30% of the sequences no function could be attributed using in silico procedures. The establishment of a gene set involved in osmotic stress responses in soybean and barrel medic will help to better understand the survival mechanisms for this type of stress condition in legumes.

A toolbox of genes, proteins, metabolites and promoters for improving drought tolerance in soybean includes the metabolite coumestrol and stomatal development genes

“…Drought responses have previously been studied in soybean using both pot-based systems (PSys) and hydroponics systems (HSys) [ 5 – 7 ]. PSys are more similar to field conditions with a slower rate of water loss that allows acclimation to the stress [ 5 ].…”

Virus-induced gene silencing is a versatile tool for unraveling the functional relevance of multiple abiotic-stress-responsive genes in crop plants

“…In contrast to the enormous progress made in generating sequence information, functional analysis of genes is lagging behind. Although in silico approaches and comparative genomic strategies have provided initial clues about the identity and function of abiotic-stress-responsive genes in many crop species (Gorantla et al, 2007 ; Tran and Mochida, 2010 ; Soares-Cavalcanti et al, 2012 ), comprehensive functional characterization tools are necessary for understanding the precise role of these genes in combating abiotic stresses. Mutant plants generated by chemical mutagenesis (Saleki et al, 1993 ), T-DNA tagging (Koiwa et al, 2006 ), and transposon tagging (Zhu et al, 2007 ) have been used for understanding stress tolerance.…”

Rootstocks Overexpressing StNPR1 and StDREB1 Improve Osmotic Stress Tolerance of Wild-Type Scion in Transgrafted Tobacco Plants

“…To investigate the expression pattern of ORGs in response to OS in the homografted potato (P/P) plants, a total of 21 highly regulated ORGs [24,32,51] involved in different processes were tested. The results of the qRT-PCR analysis showed differential expression of the selected genes under OS.…”

“…At the molecular level, plants can increase their tolerance to OS by manipulating the expression of osmotic responsive genes (ORGs) [24,27,28]. These genes are involved in different physiological and biochemical processes such as plant hormone synthesis and signaling, cell expansion, lateral root formation, and stomatal closure [29][30][31][32][33]. An example of biochemical changes associated with abiotic stress is the induction of abscisic acid (ABA), a known stress hormone that serves several roles in plant growth and development [34].…”