Genome-Wide Characterization of the Sulfate Transporter Gene Family in Oilseed Crops: Camelina sativa and Brassica napus

Parviz Heidari; Soosan Hasanzadeh; Sahar Faraji; Sezai Ercisli; Freddy Mora-Poblete

doi:10.3390/plants12030628

Genome-Wide Characterization of the Sulfate Transporter Gene Family in Oilseed Crops: Camelina sativa and Brassica napus

Plants (Basel). 2023 Jan 31;12(3):628. doi: 10.3390/plants12030628.

Authors

Parviz Heidari¹, Soosan Hasanzadeh¹, Sahar Faraji², Sezai Ercisli³, Freddy Mora-Poblete⁴

Affiliations

¹ Faculty of Agriculture, Shahrood University of Technology, Shahrood 3619995161, Iran.
² Department of Plant Breeding, Faculty of Crop Sciences, Sari Agricultural Sciences and Natural Resources University (SANRU), Sari 4818168984, Iran.
³ Department of Horticulture, Faculty of Agriculture, Ataturk University, 25240 Erzurum, Turkey.
⁴ Institute of Biological Sciences, University of Talca, Talca 3460000, Chile.

Abstract

Sulfate transporters (SULTRs) are responsible for the uptake of sulfate (SO₄^2-) ions in the rhizosphere by roots and their distribution to plant organs. In this study, SULTR family members in the genomes of two oilseed crops (Camelina sativa and Brassica napus) were identified and characterized based on their sequence structures, duplication events, phylogenetic relationships, phosphorylation sites, and expression levels. In total, 36 and 45 putative SULTR genes were recognized in the genomes of C. sativa and B. napus, respectively. SULTR proteins were predicted to be basophilic proteins with low hydrophilicity in both studied species. According to the observed phylogenetic relationships, we divided the SULTRs into five groups, out of which the SULTR 3 group showed the highest variation. Additionally, several duplication events were observed between the SULTRs. The first duplication event occurred approximately five million years ago between three SULTR 3.1 genes in C. sativa. Furthermore, two subunits were identified in the 3D structures of the SULTRs, which demonstrated that the active binding sites differed between C. sativa and B. napus. According to the available RNA-seq data, the SULTRs showed diverse expression levels in tissues and diverse responses to stimuli. SULTR 3 was expressed in all tissues. SULTR 3.1 was more upregulated in response to abiotic stresses in C. sativa, while SULTR 3.3 and SULTR 2.1 were upregulated in B. napus. Furthermore, SULTR 3 and SULTR 4.1 were upregulated in response to biotic stresses in B. napus. Additionally, the qPCR data showed that the SULTRs in C. sativa were involved in the plant's response to salinity. Based on the distribution of cis-regulatory elements in the promoter region, we speculated that SULTRs might be controlled by phytohormones, such as ABA and MeJA. Therefore, it seems likely that SULTR genes in C. sativa have been more heavily influenced by evolutionary processes and have acquired further diversity. The results reveal new insights of the structures and functions of SULTRs in oilseed crops. However, further analyses, related to functional studies, are needed to uncover the role of SULTRs in the plants' development and growth processes, as well as in their response to stimuli.

Keywords: bioinformatics; biotic stresses; evolutionary analysis; gene expression; protein structure; regulatory mechanisms.

Grants and funding

This research received no external funding.