Genome-wide identification and characterization of an amino acid permease gene family in Nicotiana tabacum

Abstract

The amino acid permease (AAP) protein family is an important class of amino acid transporter. However, little information about this gene family is available in tobacco. Here, a total number of 15, 7, and 6 fulllength putative AAP genes have been identified in the genomes of Nicotiana tabacum and progenitors of modern tobacco, Nicotiana sylvestris and Nicotiana tomentosiformis, respectively. We performed a multiple analyses of the AAP gene family in tobacco and reported data including phylogenetic relationships, gene structures, predicted protein structures and information about conserved motifs.These tobacco AAP family members shared high levels of similarity in their nucleotide and amino acid sequences. The gene structures of the NtAAP loci were all separated by introns. Phylogenetic analyses indicated that these AAP genes were clustered into three groups. We also performed expression profiling analyses of the NtAAP genes in various tobacco tissues/organs using quantitative PCR. The differential expression patterns of the NtAAP genes suggested that the family members might have different biological functions in tobacco plants. To study the function of NtAAP2-2, its coding sequence was cloned and overexpression/RNA interference vectors were constructed and these vectors were transformed into tobacco. Compared with wild-type tobacco, the contents of Glu, Gln, Asp and Asn were found to change in the transgenic tobacco leaves, indicating that NtAAP2-2 was involved in the transportation of Glu, Gln, Asp and Asn in tobacco. Our results can serve as fundamental research for future evolutionary and functional characterization studies of the AAP genes in tobacco.

Nitrogen Uptake in Plants: The Plasma Membrane Root Transport Systems from a Physiological and Proteomic Perspective

“…These functionalities could differently respond to N inputs as well as could be differently affected by factors, including photosynthetic activity and energy metabolism, with a final outcome that is very challenging to discern the regulatory network. However, an increasing interest is directed to the AAAP family, and, in our opinion, recent genome-wide analyses, such as those conducted in maize [ 94 ], potato ( Solanum tuberosum L.) [ 95 ], tobacco ( Nicotiana spp) [ 96 ], and wheat ( Triticum aestivum L.) [ 97 ] are paving the way to unravel this issue in the coming years. On the contrary, proteomics was very rarely applied in the field of amino acid nutrition in plants.…”

Genome-Wide Identification and Functional Analysis of Lysine Histidine Transporter (LHT) Gene Families in Maize

“…Previous research recommended that motifs 1–4 function as a transmembrane region containing transmembrane transporter activity. The existence of the same type of conserved motif recommends that members of the same family may perform similar activities [ 39 ]. In this study, we found a total of 13 unique motifs and all ZmLHTs have at least 1–4 motifs except ZmLHTs11, 13, 14, and 15.…”

Genome-Wide Identification, Characterization, and Expression Analysis of the Amino Acid Permease Gene Family in Soybean

“…After investigation, we found that the GmAAP members exhibit large variation in the number of exons, ranging from two to eight, while the majority of them (53%) carried seven exons. This pattern is likely conserved within plant species because nearly half of AAP genes (6 of 15) in Nicotiana tabacum contain seven exons, and over half of AAPs (18 AAPs of 34 AAPs) from Brassica napus contain six exons; 5 members of the 8 Arabidopsis AAP genes contained six exons [50][51][52].…”