Genome-wide identification of the P4ATPase gene family and its response to biotic and abiotic stress in soybean (Glycine max L.)

Abstract

Background: Soybean is an important legume crop and has significant agricultural and economic value. P4-ATPases (aminophospholipid ATPases, ALAs), one of the classes of P-type ATPases, can transport or flip phospholipids across membranes, creating and maintaining lipid asymmetry and playing crucial roles in plant growth and development. To date, however, the ALA gene family and its expression patterns under abiotic and biotic stresses have not been studied in the soybean genome.

Results: A total of 27 GmALA genes were identified in the soybean genome and these genes were unevenly distributed on 15 chromosomes and classified into five groups based on phylogenetic analysis. The GmALAs family had diverse intron-exon patterns and a highly conserved motif distribution. A total of eight domains were found in GmALAs, and all GmALAs had conserved PhoLip_ATPase_C, phosphorylation and transmembrane domains. Cis-acting elements in the promoter demonstrated that GmALAs are associated with cellular development, phytohormones, environmental stress and photoresponsiveness. Analysis of gene duplication events revealed 24 orthologous gene pairs in soybean and synteny analysis revealed that GmALAs had greater collinearity with AtALAs than with OsALAs. Evolutionary constraint analyses suggested that GmALAs have undergone strong selective pressure for purification during the evolution of soybeans. Tissue-specific expression profiles revealed that GmALAs were differentially expressed in roots, stems, seeds, flowers, nodules and leaves. The expression pattern of these genes appeared to be diverse in the different developmental tissues. Combined transcriptome and qRT-PCR data confirmed the differential expression of GmALAs under abiotic (dehydration, saline, low temperature, ozone, light, wounding and phytohormones) and biotic stresses (aphid, fungi, rhizobia and rust pathogen).

Conclusion: In summary, genome-wide identification and evolutionary and expression analyses of the GmALAs gene family in soybean were conducted. Our work provides an important theoretical basis for further understanding GmALAs in biological functional studies.

Keywords: Bioinformatics analysis; Expression patterns; P4-ATPases; Stress response.