Isoprenoids, the largest and most diverse class of secondary metabolites in plants, play an important role in plant growth and development. Isoprenoids can be synthesized by two distinct pathways: the methylerythritol-4-phosphate (MEP) pathway and the mevalonate (MVA) pathway. 1-Deoxy-D-xylulose-5-phosphate synthase (DXS) is the first step and a key regulatory enzyme of the MEP pathway in plants. The DXS gene has been reported to play a key role in seedling development, flowering, and fruit quality in plants of the Solanaceae, such as tomato, potato and tobacco. However, to improve our understanding and utilization of DXS genes, a thorough bioinformatics study is needed. In this study, 48 DXS genes were aligned and analyzed by computational tools to predict their protein properties, including molecular mass, theoretical isoelectric point (pI), signal peptides, transmembrane and conserved domains, and expression patterns. Sequence comparison analysis revealed strong conservation among the 48 DXS genes. Phylogenetic analysis indicated that all DXS genes were derived from one ancestor and could be classified into three groups with different expression patterns. Moreover, the functional divergence of DXS was restricted after gene duplication. The results suggested that the function and evolution of the DXS gene family were highly conserved and that the DXS genes of Group I may play a more important role than those of other groups.
Keywords: Bioinformatics study; DXS gene family; MEP pathway; Solanaceae.