Genome-Wide Identification and Expression Analysis of the VILLIN Gene Family in Soybean

Yueqiong Zhou; Liangliang He; Shaoli Zhou; Qing Wu; Xuan Zhou; Yawen Mao; Baolin Zhao; Dongfa Wang; Weiyue Zhao; Ruoruo Wang; Huabin Hu; Jianghua Chen

doi:10.3390/plants12112101

Genome-Wide Identification and Expression Analysis of the VILLIN Gene Family in Soybean

Plants (Basel). 2023 May 25;12(11):2101. doi: 10.3390/plants12112101.

Authors

Yueqiong Zhou^{1

2}, Liangliang He^{1

2}, Shaoli Zhou^{1

2}, Qing Wu^{1

2}, Xuan Zhou^{1

2}, Yawen Mao^{1

2}, Baolin Zhao^{1

2}, Dongfa Wang^{1

3}, Weiyue Zhao^{1

2}, Ruoruo Wang^{1

4}, Huabin Hu^{1

2}, Jianghua Chen^{1

2

3

5}

Affiliations

¹ CAS Key Laboratory of Tropical Plant Resources and Sustainable Use, CAS Center for Excellence in Molecular Plant Sciences, Xishuangbanna Tropical Botanical Garden, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Kunming 650223, China.
² University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 101408, China.
³ College of Life Sciences, Division of Life Sciences and Medicine, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei 230026, China.
⁴ Guizhou Institute of Biotechnology, Guizhou Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Guiyang 550006, China.
⁵ Institute of Biodiversity, School of Ecology and Environmental Science, Yunnan University, Kunming 650106, China.

Abstract

The VILLIN (VLN) protein is an important regulator of the actin cytoskeleton, which orchestrates many developmental processes and participates in various biotic and abiotic responses in plants. Although the VLN gene family and their potential functions have been analyzed in several plants, knowledge of VLN genes in soybeans and legumes remains rather limited. In this study, a total of 35 VLNs were characterized from soybean and five related legumes. Combining with the VLN sequences from other nine land plants, we categorized the VLN gene family into three groups according to phylogenetic relationships. Further detailed analysis of the soybean VLNs indicated that the ten GmVLNs were distributed on 10 of the 20 chromosomes, and their gene structures and protein motifs showed high group specificities. The expression pattern analysis suggested that most GmVLNs are widely expressed in various tissues, but three members have a very high level in seeds. Moreover, we observed that the cis-elements enriched in the promoters of GmVLNs are mainly related to abiotic stresses, hormone signals, and developmental processes. The largest number of cis-elements were associated with light responses, and two GmVLNs, GmVLN5a, and GmVLN5b were significantly increased under the long light condition. This study not only provides some basic information about the VLN gene family but also provides a good reference for further characterizing the diverse functions of VLN genes in soybeans.

Keywords: VILLIN family; abiotic stresses; expression profiling; genome−wide analysis; soybean.

Grants and funding

This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (U2102222, 31700244 and 32070204), Chinese Academy of Sciences (XDB27030106), the “Yunnan RevitalizationTalent Support Program” in Yunnan Province, the Youth Innovation Promotion Association CAS (Grant 2021395), the CAS-Western Light “Cross-Team Project-KeyLaboratory Cooperative Research Project” (Grant E1XB051) for providing funding support. This study was supported by several National Natural Science Foundation of China (grant nos. 32200290, 31700244).