Identification, characterization and expression analysis of wheat RSH family genes under abiotic stress

Mengru Wang; Wei Hong; Youning Wang; Xiaowen Han; Wang Chen; Shuping Wang; Yingxin Zhang; Wenli Wang

doi:10.3389/fpls.2023.1283567

Identification, characterization and expression analysis of wheat RSH family genes under abiotic stress

Front Plant Sci. 2023 Nov 27:14:1283567. doi: 10.3389/fpls.2023.1283567. eCollection 2023.

Authors

Mengru Wang^#¹, Wei Hong^#¹, Youning Wang^#², Xiaowen Han¹, Wang Chen¹, Shuping Wang¹, Yingxin Zhang¹, Wenli Wang³

Affiliations

¹ Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs (MARA) Key Laboratory of Sustainable Crop Production in the Middle Reaches of the Yangtze River (Co-Construction by Ministry and Province), College of Agriculture, Yangtze University, Jingzhou, China.
² Hubei Key Laboratory of Quality Control of Characteristic Fruits and Vegetables, Hubei Engineering University, Xiaogan, Hubei, China.
³ College of Plant Protection, North West Agriculture and Forestry (A&F), University, Yangling, Shaanxi, China.

^# Contributed equally.

Abstract

Guanosine pentaphosphate and guanosine tetraphosphate are collectively called (p)ppGpp (Guanosine tetraphosphate and pentaphosphate). (p)ppGpp content in plants is affected by conditions such as light, salt, pH, UV light, and environmental phytohormones. The synthesis and hydrolysis of (p)ppGpp in plants is accomplished by a class of proteins called RSH (RelA/SpoT homologs). To date, a systematic and comprehensive genome-wide analysis of the RSH gene family in wheat and its closely related species has not been conducted. In this study, 15, 14, 12, and 8 members of RSH were identified in wheat (Triticum aestivum), Triticum dicoccoides, Triticum urartu and Aegilops tauschii respectively. Based on the conserved structural domains of the RSH genes, the TaRSHs have been categorized into TaRSH and TaCRSH. The gene duplications in the TaRSH gene family were all identified as segmental duplications indicating that the TaRSH family plays a significant role in expansion and that segmental duplications maintain a degree of genetic stability. Through the analysis of transcriptome data and RT-qPCR experiments, it was observed that the expression levels of TaRSHs were upregulated in response to abiotic stress. This upregulation suggests that TaRSHs play a crucial role in enhancing the resilience of wheat to adverse environmental conditions during its growth and development. Their increased expression likely contributes to the acquisition of stress tolerance mechanisms in wheat. Especially under NaCl stress, the expression levels increased most significantly. The more detailed systematic analysis provided in this article will help us understand the role of TaRSHs and provide a reference for further research on its molecular biological functions in wheat.

Keywords: RSH genes; RT-qPCR; abiotic stress; bioinformatics; transcriptome analysis.

Grants and funding

The author(s) declare financial support was received for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. This research was supported by the Basic and long term scientific and technological work in agriculture (NAES083PP13) and Sichuan Provincial Science and Technology Plan Project (2022YFS0585).