The Sugar Transporter family in wheat (Triticum aestivum. L): genome-wide identification, classification, and expression profiling during stress in seedlings

Hongzhan Liu; Chaoqiong Li; Lin Qiao; Lizong Hu; Xueqin Wang; Junsheng Wang; Xianle Ruan; Guangyu Yang; Guihong Yin; Chunping Wang; Zhongke Sun; Keshi Ma; Lili Li

doi:10.7717/peerj.11371

The Sugar Transporter family in wheat (Triticum aestivum. L): genome-wide identification, classification, and expression profiling during stress in seedlings

PeerJ. 2021 May 4:9:e11371. doi: 10.7717/peerj.11371. eCollection 2021.

Authors

Hongzhan Liu^{1

2}, Chaoqiong Li², Lin Qiao², Lizong Hu², Xueqin Wang², Junsheng Wang², Xianle Ruan², Guangyu Yang¹, Guihong Yin^{3

4}, Chunping Wang⁵, Zhongke Sun², Keshi Ma², Lili Li^{2

4}

Affiliations

¹ Zhoukou Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Zhoukou, Henan, China.
² College of Life Science and Agronomy, Zhoukou Normal University, Zhoukou, Henan, China.
³ College of Agronomy, Henan Agricultural University, Zhengzhou, Henan, China.
⁴ Key Laboratory of Plant Genetics and Molecular Breeding, Zhoukou Normal University, Zhoukou, Henan, China.
⁵ College of Agronomy, Henan University of Science and Technology, Luoyang, Henan, China.

Abstract

The sugar transporter protein (STP) plays a crucial role in regulating plant growth and stress tolerance. We performed genome-wide identification and expression analysis of the STP gene family to investigate the STPSs' potential roles in the growth of wheat seedlings under stress. Here, a total of 81 TaSTP genes containing the Sugar_tr conserved motif were identified within the wheat genome. Bioinformatic studies including phylogenetic tree, chromosome position, and tandem repeat were performed to analyze the identified genes. The 81 TaSTP genes can be classified into five main groups according to their structural and phylogenetic features, with several subgroups, which were located separately on chromosomes A, B, and D. Moreover, six gene clusters were formed with more than three genes each. The results of three comparative syntenic maps of wheat associated with three representative species suggested that STP genes have strong relationships in monocots. qRT-PCR analysis confirmed that most TaSTP genes displayed different expression profiles after seedlings were subjected to six days of different stress (10% PEG6000, 150 mM NaCl, and their combination, respectively), suggesting that these genes may be involved in regulating plant growth and stress tolerance. In conclusion, 81 TaSTP genes were identified and their expressions changed under stress, indicating TaSTP's potential roles in wheat growth monosaccharide distribution is regulated.

Keywords: Gene family; Sugar transporter; Syntenic maps; Wheat; qRT-PCR.

Grants and funding

This work was supported by the 2019 Postdoctoral Research Project Start-up Funding of Henan Province (No. 226152), the Department of Science and Technology Planning Project of Henan Province (Nos. 202102110173, 202102110228), the Doctoral Scientific Research Starting Foundation of Zhoukou Normal University (No. ZKNU2014111), the National Natural Science Foundation of Henan province (Nos. 162300410348, 162300410077), the 2019 Young Master Teacher Funding Project of Zhoukou Normal University (No. ZKNU20190022), The 13th Five-year Plan for Key National Research and Development (No. 2018YFD010141), and the Henan International Cooperation Project (No. 172102410052). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.