Polygalacturonase (PG), a large hydrolase family in plants, is involved in pectin disassembly of the cell wall in plants. The present study aims to characterize PG genes and investigate their expression patterns in Solanum lycopersicum. We identified 54 PG genes in the tomato genome and compared their amino acid sequences with their Arabidopsis counterpart. Subsequently, we renamed these PG genes according to their Arabidopsis homologs. Phylogenetic and evolutionary analysis revealed that these tomato PG genes could be classified into seven clades, and within each clade the exon/intron structures were conserved. Expression profiles analysis through quantitive real-time polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR) revealed that most SlPGs had specific or high expression patterns in at least one organ, and particularly five PG genes (SlPG14, SlPG15, SlPG49, SlPG70, and SlPG71) associated with fruit development. Promoter analysis showed that more than three cis-elements associated with plant hormone response, environmental stress response or specific organ/tissue development exhibited in each SlPG promoter regions. In conclusion, our results may provide new insights for the further study of PG gene function during plant development.
Keywords: Solanum lycopersicum; expression analysis; gene family; phylogenetic analysis; polygalacturonase; tomato.