Expression profiling of ALOG family genes during inflorescence development and abiotic stress responses in rice (Oryza sativa L.)

Front Genet. 2024 Apr 8:15:1381690. doi: 10.3389/fgene.2024.1381690. eCollection 2024.

Abstract

The ALOG (Arabidopsis LSH1 and Oryza G1) family proteins, namely, DUF640 domain-containing proteins, have been reported to function as transcription factors in various plants. However, the understanding of the response and function of ALOG family genes during reproductive development and under abiotic stress is still largely limited. In this study, we comprehensively analyzed the structural characteristics of ALOG family proteins and their expression profiles during inflorescence development and under abiotic stress in rice. The results showed that OsG1/OsG1L1/2/3/4/5/6/7/8/9 all had four conserved helical structures and an inserted Zinc-Ribbon (ZnR), the other four proteins OsG1L10/11/12/13 lacked complete Helix-1 and Helix-2. In the ALOG gene promoters, there were abundant cis-acting elements, including ABA, MeJA, and drought-responsive elements. Most ALOG genes show a decrease in expression levels within 24 h under ABA and drought treatments, while OsG1L2 expression levels show an upregulated trend under ABA and drought treatments. The expression analysis at different stages of inflorescence development indicated that OsG1L1/2/3/8/11 were mainly expressed in the P1 stage; in the P4 stage, OsG1/OsG1L4/5/9/12 had a higher expression level. These results lay a good foundation for further studying the expression of rice ALOG family genes under abiotic stresses, and provide important experimental support for their functional research.

Keywords: ALOG family; abiotic stress; expression analysis; inflorescence development; rice.

Grants and funding

The author(s) declare that financial support was received for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. This study was supported by the Natural Science Foundation of Anhui Province (2308085MC70); the key project of the Education Department of Anhui Province (2023AH051850); the Excellent Scientific Research and Innovation team of the Education Department of Anhui Province (2022AH010087); the Natural Science Foundation of Hubei Province - General Project (2019CFB625); the Talent Introduction Project of Anhui Science and Technology University (NXYJ202104); the National College Student Innovation and Entrepreneurship Training Program Project of China (202210879058, 202310879076); the College Student Innovation and Entrepreneurship Training Program Project of Anhui Province (S202310879168). The funding institution was not involved in the design of the study, collection, analysis, and interpretation of data, and in writing the manuscript.