Bioinformatic analysis of wheat defensin gene family and function verification of candidate genes

Ye Dong; Youning Wang; Mingshuang Tang; Wang Chen; Yi Chai; Wenli Wang

doi:10.3389/fpls.2023.1279502

Bioinformatic analysis of wheat defensin gene family and function verification of candidate genes

Front Plant Sci. 2023 Oct 24:14:1279502. doi: 10.3389/fpls.2023.1279502. eCollection 2023.

Authors

Ye Dong^#¹, Youning Wang^#², Mingshuang Tang^#³, Wang Chen¹, Yi Chai¹, Wenli Wang⁴

Affiliations

¹ Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs (MARA) Key Laboratory of Sustainable Crop Production in the Middle Reaches of the Yangtze River (Co-Construction by Ministry and Province), College of Agriculture, Yangtze University, Jingzhou, China.
² Hubei Key Laboratory of Quality Control of Characteristic Fruits and Vegetables, Hubei Engineering University, Xiaogan, Hubei, China.
³ Nanchong Academy of Agriculture Sciences, Nanchong, Sichuan, China.
⁴ College of Plant Protection, Northwest A&F University, Yangling, Shanxi, China.

^# Contributed equally.

Abstract

Plant defensins are widely distributed in the leaves, fruits, roots, stems, seeds, and tubers. Research shows that defensin in plants play a significant role in physiological metabolism, growth and development. Plant defensins can kill and suppress a variety of pathogenic bacteria. In this study, we understand the phylogenetic relationships, protein characterization, chromosomal localization, promoter and gene structural features of the TaPDFs family through sequence alignment and conserved protein structural domain analysis. A total of 73 PDF gene members in wheat, 15 PDF genes in maize, and 11 PDF genes in rice were identified. A total of 35, 65, and 34 PDF gene members were identified in the genomes of Ae. tauschii, T. urartu, and T. dicoccoides, respectively. TaPDF4.9 and TaPDF2.15 were constructed into pART27 vector with YFP by homologous recombination for subcellular localization analysis. Subcellular localization results showed that TaPDF4.9 and TaPDF2.15 were basically located in the cell membrane and cytoplasm, and TaPDF4.9 was also located in the nucleus. TaPDF4.9 and TaPDF2.15 could inhibit the infection of Phytophthora infestans strain '88069'. The results suggest that TaPDFs may be able to improve disease resistance. The study of wheat defensins will be beneficial for improving wheat yield and provides a theoretical basis for research on resistance to wheat diseases.

Keywords: Phytophthora infestans infection; defensins; gene expression; gene structure; subcellular localization.

Grants and funding

The author(s) declare financial support was received for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. This research was supported by the Basic and long term scientific and technological work in agriculture (NAES083PP13) and Sichuan Provincial Science and Technology Plan Project (2022YFS0585).