Jasmonate ZIM-domain (JAZ) proteins are the crucial transcriptional repressors in the jasmonic acid (JA) signaling process, and they play pervasive roles in plant development, defense, and plant specialized metabolism. Although numerous JAZ gene families have been discovered across several plants, our knowledge about the JAZ gene family remains limited in the economically and medicinally important Chinese herb Mentha canadensis L. Here, seven non-redundant JAZ genes named McJAZ1-McJAZ7 were identified from our reported M. canadensis transcriptome data. Structural, amino acid composition, and phylogenetic analysis showed that seven McJAZ proteins contained the typical zinc-finger inflorescence meristem (ZIM) domain and JA-associated (Jas) domain as conserved as those in other plants, and they were clustered into four groups (A-D) and distributed into five subgroups (A1, A2, B1, B2, and D). Quantitative real-time PCR (qRT-PCR) analysis showed that seven McJAZ genes displayed differential expression patterns in M. canadensis tissues, and preferentially expressed in flowers. Furthermore, the McJAZ genes expression was differentially induced after Methyl jasmonate (MeJA) treatment, and their transcripts were variable and up- or down-regulated under abscisic acid (ABA), drought, and salt treatments. Subcellular localization analysis revealed that McJAZ proteins are localized in the nucleus or cytoplasm. Yeast two-hybrid (Y2H) assays demonstrated that McJAZ1-5 interacted with McCOI1a, a homolog of Arabidopsis JA receptor AtCOI1, in a coronatine-dependent manner, and most of McJAZ proteins could also form homo- or heterodimers. This present study provides valuable basis for functional analysis and exploitation of the potential candidate McJAZ genes for developing efficient strategies for genetic improvement of M. canadensis.
Keywords: McJAZ protein; Mentha canadensis L.; gene expression; jasmonate; phylogenetic analysis; protein-protein interaction.