Identification of the trehalose-6-phosphate synthase gene family in winter wheat and expression analysis under conditions of freezing stress

Abstract

Trehalose plays an important role in metabolic regulation and abiotic stress tolerance in plants. Trehalose contents are potentially modulated by trehalose-6-phosphate synthase (TPS), which is a key enzyme in the trehalose biosynthetic pathway. Using available wheat expressed sequence tag sequence information from NCBI and two wheat genome databases, we identified 12 wheat TPS genes and performed a comprehensive study on their structural, evolutionary and functional properties. The estimated divergence time of wheat TPS gene pairs and wheat-rice orthologues suggested that wheat and rice have a common ancestor. The number of TPS genes in the wheat genome was estimated to be at least 12, which is close to the number found in rice, Arabidopsis and soybean. Moreover, it has been reported earlier in other plants that TPS genes respond to abiotic stress, however, our study mainly analysed the TPS gene family under freezing conditions in winter wheat, and determined that most of the TPS gene expression in winter wheat was induced by freezing conditions, which further suggested that wheat TPS genes were involved in winter wheat freeze-resistance signal transduction pathways. Taken together, the current study represents the first comprehensive study of TPS genes in winter wheat and provides a foundation for future functional studies of this important gene family in Triticeae.

Genome-Wide Mining and Identification of Protein Kinase Gene Family Impacts Salinity Stress Tolerance in Highly Dense Genetic Map Developed from Interspecific Cross between G. hirsutum L. and G. darwinii G. Watt

“…Interestingly, out of 75 genes, five had one exon and no intron. Our results are consistent with previous findings about the reduced intron numbers in stress responsive genes, such as the trehalose-6-phosphate synthase gene family which plays an important role in abiotic stress and metabolic regulation [79]. Similarly, about 45% and 41% of genes in the F-box subfamily are speculated to be intronless in Arabidopsis and Oryza sativa, respectively.…”

Two Subclasses of Differentially Expressed TPS1 Genes and Biochemically Active TPS1 Proteins May Contribute to Sugar Signalling in Kiwifruit Actinidia chinensis

“…Most work describing T6P stress response, energy sensing and signalling networks and underlying molecular mechanisms has utilized Arabidopsis, but it is becoming clear that aspects of T6P signalling and role in plant development might be conserved across species [31,35,36], with some caveats. However, there has been little research in trehalose metabolism and signalling in woody perennial plants.…”

The Role of Trehalose 6-Phosphate in Crop Yield and Resilience

“…3). The TPS tree is divided into two main clades as noted by several authors (Lunn 339 2007;Henry et al 2014;Xie et al 2015;Han et al 2016). Class I includes TPSs with a high number of 340 exons (minimum of 9 but usually more than 15, Supplementary Table 4a).…”