Identification and Expression Analysis of VQ Gene Family in Solanum tuberosum
ZHAI Ming-Ming1, LIU Na1, XU Ren-Yuan1, LI Huan-Huan1, WANG Qian1, LIU Bo-Lin1, WANG Kui2, FANG Yu-Chuan2, GUO Dong-Wei1,*
1 College of Agronomy, Northwest A & F University, Yangling 71200, China; 2 Yulin Academy of Agricultural Sciences of Shaanxi Province, Yulin 719000, China
Abstract：VQ protein is a kind of non-specific plant protein with the conserved amino acid sequence of "FxxxVQxLTG". It is named as the VQ protein because it contains two highly conserved dipeptides (valine and glutamine). This family plays an important role in plant growth and development and stress response, but little research has been done in potatoes (Solanum tuberosum). In order to explore the functions of potato VQ gene family, the StVQ gene family members were analyzed by bioinformatics method, and the responses to various stresses were verified by qPCR. The results showed that 37 StVQs were identified in potato genome, named as StVQ1~StVQ37, which were distributed on 12 chromosomes in order, and 34 of them did not contain introns. According to the sequence characteristics, the family can be divided into 9 subfamilies. Sequence alignment results showed that there were 7 variation types in the StVQ family proteins. A couple of tandem repeat genes and 7 pairs of segmental duplication genes were founded with intraspecific collinearity analysis method. The protein network prediction analysis indicated that the StVQ family proteins interacted with the StWRKY. The RNA-seq data suggested that StVQ genes expressions varied at different tissue, and variations of expression level were also distinct under different conditions of stress. The further experiments of qPCR and promoter analysis demonstrated that those genes could respond to the abiotic stress of cold, salinity, drought, etc. The results of this study provide a reference for further functional verification and mechanism analysis of StVQ.
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