Genome-wide identification and expression analysis of the VQ gene family in Cicer arietinum and Medicago truncatula

Lei Ling; Yue Qu; Jintao Zhu; Dan Wang; Changhong Guo

doi:10.7717/peerj.8471

Genome-wide identification and expression analysis of the VQ gene family in Cicer arietinum and Medicago truncatula

PeerJ. 2020 Feb 4:8:e8471. doi: 10.7717/peerj.8471. eCollection 2020.

Authors

Lei Ling¹, Yue Qu¹, Jintao Zhu¹, Dan Wang¹, Changhong Guo¹

Affiliation

¹ College of Life Science and Technology, Harbin Normal University, Harbin, China.

Abstract

Valine-glutamine (VQ) proteins are plant-specific proteins that play crucial roles in plant development as well as biotic and abiotic stress responses. VQ genes have been identified in various plants; however, there are no systematic reports in Cicer arietinum or Medicago truncatula. Herein, we identified 19 and 32 VQ genes in C. arietinum and M. truncatula, respectively. A total of these VQ genes were divided into eight groups (I-VIII) based on phylogenetic analysis. Gene structure analyses and motif patterns revealed that these VQ genes might have originated from a common ancestor. In silico analyses demonstrated that these VQ genes were expressed in different tissues. qRT-PCR analysis indicated that the VQ genes were differentially regulated during multiple abiotic stresses. This report presents the first systematic analysis of VQ genes from C. arietinum and M. truncatula and provides a solid foundation for further research of the specific functions of VQ proteins.

Keywords: Abiotic stress; Bioinformatics; Cicer arietinum; Gene expression; Medicago truncatula; VQ gene family.

Grants and funding

This work was supported by the National Key Research and Development Program of China (2017YFD0101303), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (31770575, 31470571), Programs for Science and Technology Development of Heilongjiang Provice, China (GA19B103), Graduate Innovation Fund of Harbin Normal University (HSDBSCX2016-4) and the National Major Project for Cultivation of Transgenic Crops (2016ZX08004-002-003). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.