Genome-wide identification and classification of the Hsf and sHsp gene families in Prunus mume, and transcriptional analysis under heat stress

Xueli Wan; Jie Yang; Cong Guo; Manzhu Bao; Junwei Zhang

doi:10.7717/peerj.7312

Genome-wide identification and classification of the Hsf and sHsp gene families in Prunus mume, and transcriptional analysis under heat stress

PeerJ. 2019 Jul 29:7:e7312. doi: 10.7717/peerj.7312. eCollection 2019.

Authors

Xueli Wan^{1

2}, Jie Yang^{1

3}, Cong Guo^{1

4}, Manzhu Bao¹, Junwei Zhang¹

Affiliations

¹ Key Laboratory of Horticultural Plant Biology, Ministry of Education, College of Horticulture and Forestry Sciences, Huazhong Agricultural University, Wuhan, China.
² College of Landscape and Forestry, Qingdao Agricultural University, Qingdao, China.
³ School of Nuclear Technology and Chemisity & Biology, Hubei University of Science and Technology, Xianning, China.
⁴ Institute of Industrial Crops, Hubei Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Wuhan, China.

Abstract

The transcriptional activation of heat shock proteins (Hsps) by heat shock transcription factors (Hsfs) is presumed to have a pivotal role in plant heat stress (HS) response. Prunus mume is an ornamental woody plant with distinctive features, including rich varieties and colors. In this study, 18 Hsfs and 24 small Hsps (sHsps) were identified in P. mume. Their chromosomal locations, protein domains, conserved motifs, phylogenetic relationships, and exon-intron structures were analyzed and compared with Arabidopsis thaliana Hsfs or sHsps. A total of 18 PmHsf members were classified into three major classes, A, B, and C. A total of 24 PmsHsps were grouped into eight subfamilies (CI to CIII, P, endoplasmic reticulum, M, and CI- or P-related). Quantitative reverse transcription PCR analysis revealed that members of the A2, A7, and A9 groups became the prominent Hsfs after heat shock, suggesting their involvement in a key regulatory role of heat tolerance. Most of the PmsHsp genes were up-regulated upon exposure to HS. Overall, our data contribute to an improved understanding of the complexity of the P. mume Hsf and sHsp gene families, and provide a basis for directing future systematic studies investigating the roles of the Hsf and sHsp gene families.

Keywords: Hsf; Prunus mume; qRT-PCR; sHsp.

Grants and funding

This work was supported by the National Key R&D Program of China (No. 2018YFD1000402) and the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 31270739). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.