Genome-wide analysis of physic nut MADS-box gene family and functional characterization of the JcMADS05 gene in transgenic rice

Abstract

Background: Physic nut (Jatropha curcas), a non-edible oilseed plant, is among the most promising alternative energy sources because of its high seed oil content, rapid growth and extensive adaptability. Proteins encoded by MADS-box genes are important transcription factors involved in the regulation of plant growth, seed development and responses to abiotic stress. However, there has been no in-depth research on the MADS-box genes and their roles in physic nut. Results:In the present study, 63 MADS-box genes (JcMADSs) were identified in the physic nut genome, and classed into five groups (MIKC, Mα, Mβ, Mγ, Mδ) based on phylogenetic comparison with Arabidopsis homologs. Expression profile analysis based on RNA-seq suggested that many JcMADS genes were expressed most strongly in seeds, and seven of them responded in leaves to at least one abiotic stressor (drought and/or salinity) at one or more time points. Transient expression analysis and a transactivation assay indicated that JcMADS05 is a nucleus-localized transcriptional activator.Plants overexpressing JcMADS05 did not show altered plant growth, but the overexpressing plants did exhibit reductions in grain size, grain length, grain width, 1000-seed weight and yield per plant.Further data on the reduced grain size in JcMADS05-overexpressing plants supported the putative role of JcMADS genes in seed development. Conclusions:This study will be useful in understanding the involvement of MADS-box genes in growth and development in addition to their functions in abiotic stress resistance, and will ultimately form the basis for functional characterization and the exploitation of candidate genes for the genetic engineering of physic nut. BackgroundThe regulation of plant growth, development and stress responses is complex and is coordinated by many mechanisms. These mechanisms are under the control of a series of related genes acting through complex regulatory networks. In these processes, transcription factor (such as members of the MYB, HD-Zip, ARF, NAC, MADS-box, and ERF gene families) specifically recognize cis-regulatory elements present in the promoter regions of these genes, and regulate their expression so as to modulate a wide range of biochemical, physiological and developmental processes [1][2][3][4][5][6] (Ferrandiz All Arabidopsis MADS-box protein sequences were used as queries in a BlastP search to identify physic nut proteins. A Hidden Markov Model (HMM) search was also performed against the physic nut protein database using the MADS-domain PF03106. In total, 63 putative MADS proteins were identified in physic nut, with the presence of the MADS-box domain in each of them being confirmed by a SMART website search. These genes were named sequentially from JcMADS01 to JcMADS63 according to their chromosomal locations (Additional File 1). The 63 JcMADS genes ranged in length from 195 (JcMADS35) to 1164 (JcMADS34), thus potentially the proteins encoded would be from 64 to The research was conceived and designed by XB and YT. The experiments were performed ...

Identification and Low-Temperature Stress Expression Analysis of Wheat MIKC-Type MADS-box Gene Family

“…MADS-box genes are expressed in various parts of plants, and play fundamental roles in developmental control and signal transduction, including ower and seed development, owering time control, fruit ripening regulation, and response to abiotic and biological stresses (Bai et al 2019). For example, MADS-box genes in Physic nut (Jatropha curcas) exhibited signi cant induction or inhibition of expression in response to drought and salt stresses (Tang et al 2020). Previous studies have found that the down-regulated expression of OsMADS26 in rice, enhanced the drought resistance of transgenic plants (Khong et al 2015), and the down-regulated expression of SlMBP8 in tomato also enhanced the resistance of transgenic plants to salt stress (Wencheng et al 2017).…”