Mining the Roles of Cucumber DUF966 Genes in Fruit Development and Stress Response

Abstract

DUF966 genes are widely found in monocotyledons, dicotyledons, mosses, and other species. Current evidence strongly suggests that they are involved in growth regulation and stress tolerance in crops. However, their functions in cucumbers remain unexplored. Here, cucumber CsDUF966 was systemically identified and characterized using bioinformatics. Eight CsDUF966 genes were identified in the cucumber genome. These were phylogenetically separated into three groups. All CsDUF966 proteins were hydrophilic and localized to the nucleus. Moreover, three acidic and five basic proteins were identified. Evolutionary analysis of DUF966 between cucumber and 33 other Cucurbitaceae species/cultivars revealed that most CsDUF966 genes were conserved, whereas CsDUF966_4.c and CsDUF966_7.c were positively selected among the five cucumber cultivars. Expression profiling analysis showed that CsDUF966 had variable expression patterns, and that miRNA164, miRNA166, and Csa-novel-35 were involved in the post-transcriptional regulation of CsDUF966_4.c and CsDUF966_7.c. The expression of CsDUF966_4.c and CsDUF966_7.c, which were under strong neofunctionalization selection, was strictly regulated in fruit and tissues, including seeds, pericarps, peels, and spines, suggesting that these genes are fruit growth regulators and were strongly selected during the cucumber breeding program. In conclusion, the results reveal the roles of CsDUF966s in regulating cucumber fruit development and lay the foundation for further functional studies.

Genome-Wide Identification, Characterization and Expression Analysis of the TaDUF724 Gene Family in Wheat (Triticum aestivum)

“…The online website ExPASyServer10 (https://prosite.expasy.org/PS50011/, accessed on 12 September 2023) was used to analyze the basic characteristics of TaDUF724, such as protein length (Len), molecular weight (MW), isoelectric point (pI) and total hydrophily (GRAVY) [48]. The website SignalP5.0 (http://www.cbs.dtu.dk/services/SignalP/, accessed on 12 September 2023) was used to predict signal peptides and Plant-mPLoc (http://www.csbio.sjtu.edu.cn/bioinf/, accessed on 12 September 2023) was used to predict subcellular localization [8].…”