Genome-Wide Identification and Characterization of the Msr Gene Family in Alfalfa under Abiotic Stress

Abstract

Alfalfa (Medicago sativa) is an important leguminous forage, known as the “The Queen of Forages”. Abiotic stress seriously limits the growth and development of alfalfa, and improving the yield and quality has become an important research area. However, little is known about the Msr (methionine sulfoxide reductase) gene family in alfalfa. In this study, 15 Msr genes were identified through examining the genome of the alfalfa “Xinjiang DaYe”. The MsMsr genes differ in gene structure and conserved protein motifs. Many cis-acting regulatory elements related to the stress response were found in the promoter regions of these genes. In addition, a transcriptional analysis and qRT-PCR (quantitative reverse transcription PCR) showed that MsMsr genes show expression changes in response to abiotic stress in various tissues. Overall, our results suggest that MsMsr genes play an important role in the response to abiotic stress for alfalfa.

Abiotic Stress Tolerance Boosted by Genetic Diversity in Plants

“…In light of this, rigorous validation of candidate associations is a non-negotiable requirement [55] before one can proceed with more downstream applications. It is as part of this corroboration endeavor that Zhao et al [34], Ma et al [35], and Guo et al [36] envisioned their works, using alfalfa (Medicago sativa), Phoebe bournei (a widely conserved tree in China because of its economic and ecological value), and sorghum (Sorghum bicolor) as study organisms for multiple abiotic stresses, such as salt (all three species), drought (the former two taxa), and heat (the second species). Performing integrated assessment of multiple stresses such as these also enables long-standing questions concerning the scale of molecular pleiotropism beneath concomitant abiotic stresses to be addressed [56], a matter which has already been approached in this Special Issue by Wirojsirasak et al [33] in a multi-environment framework [12], but has yet to be addressed in a multi-trait setup [57].…”

“…Zhao et al [34] carried out the first attempt to concurrently study salt, drought, and ABA stresses in alfalfa by functionally validating 15 MsMsr (methionine sulfoxide reductase) genes with qRT-PCR. The investigation of the alfalfa Msr gene family represents a major advancement in our knowledge of the plant's abiotic stress response via pleiotropism [56].…”

“…Data Availability Statement: For data availability, please see the original articles [31][32][33][34][35][36][37] within the Special Issue "Abiotic Stress Tolerance and Genetic Diversity in Plants" (https://www.mdpi.com/ journal/ijms/special_issues/80P9M9NK87 accessed on 24 March 2023).…”