Drought affects aquaporins gene expression in important pulse legume chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.)

Abstract

Aquaporins (AQPs) mediate cross membrane transport of water and other solutes in plants. AQPs also enhance plant performance under environmental stresses including water shortage. Chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.) is the most important pulse legume for the people of semi-arid tropics. To understand the evolutionary relationships and role of AQPs in drought tolerance in chickpea, the current study involves an evolutionary analysis coupled with expression analysis and promoter analysis of selected AQPs. A total of 503 non-redundant AQP genes have been studied in 11 plant species including mosses (Physcomitrella patens), monocots (Oryza sativa and Zea mays) and dicots (Solanum lycopersicum, Populus trichocarpa, Gossypium hirsutum, Glycine max, Arabidopsis thaliana, Brassica rapa, Solanum tubrosum and Cicer arietinum). Phylogenetic analysis demonstrated a clear divergence of AQP subfamilies as paralogous groups and possible evolutionary direction of AQP subfamilies. Semi-quantitative RT-PCR analysis depicted involvement of PIP2; 2 and NIP6; 3 in increasing plant drought stress tolerance and of SIP1; 1 and PIP2; 3 with a contrary role. In silico promoter analysis identified a 49 bp conserved motif among six AQPs and several abiotic stresses related cis-elements. The present study is a very first step in deciphering AQPs role in drought stress tolerance with a special perspective from evolutionary relationships and gene expression regulation.

Root‐omics for drought tolerance in cool‐season grain legumes

“…These gene families have been identified in other legume crops, such as groundnut (Shivaraj et al, 2019). In a subsequent study, RT-PCR based expression analysis revealed that the PIP2; 2 and NIP6; 3 genes expressed in roots increase drought tolerance in chickpea, while contrary role has been observed for other genes SIP1; 1 and PIP2; 3 as their expression increased the sensitivity to drought (Azeem et al, 2019).…”

“…These gene families have been identified in other legume crops, such as groundnut (Shivaraj et al, 2019). In a subsequent study, RT‐PCR based expression analysis revealed that the PIP2; 2 and NIP6; 3 genes expressed in roots increase drought tolerance in chickpea, while contrary role has been observed for other genes SIP1; 1 and PIP2; 3 as their expression increased the sensitivity to drought (Azeem et al, 2019). Similarly, candidate genes associated with different functional groups, including molecular, cellular, and biological processes, expressed under drought conditions have been identified in lentil through transcriptome analysis (Singh et al, 2017).…”

“…Next‐generation sequencing‐based transcriptome analysis has identified ESTs, candidate genes, and metabolic pathways expressed in the roots of many food legumes under drought conditions (Azeem et al, 2019; Bhaskarla et al, 2020; Singh et al, 2017). However, further investigation is needed to validate the function of these genes and establish how to incorporate these genes in breeding programs to manipulate root architecture or improve water use efficiency.…”

Assessment of mutagenic sensitivity in blackgram variety CO 6

“…The prime limiting factors for realizing the higher yield of this crop can be attributed to lack of genetic variability, indeterminate growth habit, canopy architecture, poor harvest index, cultivation in marginal lands and susceptibility to pests and diseases (Azeem et. al., 2019).…”

Molecular Evolution and Expansion of the KUP Family in the Allopolyploid Cotton Species Gossypium hirsutum and Gossypium barbadense

“…A KUP member in plants was first identified in Arabidopsis (Quintero and Blatt, 1997). Since then, many KUP members have been reported in various flowering plants, such as Oryza sativa (Gupta et al, 2008), Zea mays (Zhang et al, 2012), Triticum aestivum (Cheng et al, 2018), Solanum lycopersicum (Hyun et al, 2014), Populus trichocarpa (He et al, 2012), Prunus persica (Song et al, 2015), Cicer arietinum (Azeem et al, 2018), Nicotiana tabacum (Song et al, 2019), and Manihot esculenta (Ou et al, 2018). Some KUP genes have been reported in cotton (Wang et al, 2018;Wang Y. et al, 2019).…”