Investigation of Genes Encoding Calcineurin B-Like Protein Family in Legumes and Their Expression Analyses in Chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.)

Abstract

Calcium ion (Ca2+) is a ubiquitous second messenger that transmits various internal and external signals including stresses and, therefore, is important for plants’ response process. Calcineurin B-like proteins (CBLs) are one of the plant calcium sensors, which sense and convey the changes in cytosolic Ca2+-concentration for response process. A search in four leguminous plant (soybean, Medicago truncatula, common bean and chickpea) genomes identified 9 to 15 genes in each species that encode CBL proteins. Sequence analyses of CBL peptides and coding sequences (CDS) suggested that there are nine original CBL genes in these legumes and some of them were multiplied during whole genome or local gene duplication. Coding sequences of chickpea CBL genes (CaCBL) were cloned from their cDNAs and sequenced, and their annotations in the genome assemblies were corrected accordingly. Analyses of protein sequences and gene structures of CBL family in plant kingdom indicated its diverse origin but showed a remarkable conservation in overall protein structure with appearance of complex gene structure in the course of evolution. Expression of CaCBL genes in different tissues and in response to different stress and hormone treatment were studied. Most of the CaCBL genes exhibited high expression in flowers. Expression profile of CaCBL genes in response to different abiotic stresses and hormones related to development and stresses (ABA, auxin, cytokinin, SA and JA) at different time intervals suggests their diverse roles in development and plant defence in addition to abiotic stress tolerance. These data not only contribute to a better understanding of the complex regulation of chickpea CBL gene family, but also provide valuable information for further research in chickpea functional genomics.

Conjunctive Analyses of BSA-Seq and BSR-Seq to Reveal the Molecular Pathway of Leafy Head Formation in Chinese Cabbage

“…As a second messenger in plants, calcium signals response to various external and internal stimuli, and regulate stomatal opening, root hair elongation and pollen tube growth [37][38][39]. In the calcium signaling pathway, calmodulin-like proteins (CaMs), calcium-dependent protein kinases (CDPKs) and Calcineurin B-like proteins (CBLs), were three main classes of elongation factor (EF)-hand Ca 2+ sensors [40,41], and it has reported that the ZmCBL9 and calcineurin B-like-interacting protein kinases (ZmCIPKs) interact with each other to regulate the ABA responses in maize [42].…”

Genome-Wide Association of Stem Water Soluble Carbohydrates in Bread Wheat

“…MPK genes were reported to participate in response to cold, drought, ultraviolet light, oxidation stress and disease in many crops [45–47]. Thirdly, CBL7 , as one of the plant calcium sensors, can interact with CIPKs to form CBL-CIPK complexes that mediate responses to salinity, drought stress, phosphorous deficiency and ABA signaling [48–50]. Li et al [49] indicated that over-expression of soybean CBL1 enhances tolerance to salinity and drought stress in Arabidopsis .…”

Expression of chickpea CIPK25 enhances root growth and tolerance to dehydration and salt stress in transgenic tobacco

“…First strand cDNA was synthesized by High Fidelity cDNA synthesis kit (Roche Diagnostics GmbH, Germany) and oligo dT primer at 50°C for 30 min. Quantitative real-time PCR (qRT-PCR) experiments and calculations were performed using three technical and three biological replicates following the methods described before (Meena et al, 2015 ). Briefly, the reaction was performed in 10 μl reaction volume with 225 nM of each of the forward and reverse primers (Supplementary Table 2 ) and 2X Power SYBR Green PCR master mix (Applied Biosystems, CA, USA) using Vii A 7 Real-Time PCR System (Applied Biosystems, CA, USA).…”