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Genome-wide identification of hexokinase gene family in Brassica napus: structure, phylogenetic analysis, expression, and functional characterization

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Abstract

Main conclusion

Genome-wide identification, expression analysis, and functional characterization of previously uncharacterized hexokinase family of oil crop, Brassica napus, underscore the importance of this gene family in plant growth and development.

In plants, the multi-gene family of dual-function hexokinases (HXKs) plays important roles in sugar metabolism and sensing that affect growth and development. Rapeseed (Brassica napus L.) is an important oil crop; however, little is known about the B. napus HXK gene family. We identified 19 putative HXKs in B. napus genome. B. rapa and B. oleracea, the two diploid progenitors of B. napus, contributed almost equally to the BnHXK genes. Phylogenetic analysis divided the 19 BnHXKs into four groups. The exon–intron structures of BnHXKs share high similarity to those of HXKs in Arabidopsis and rice. The group III and IV BnHXKs are highly expressed in roots, whereas group I members preferentially express in leaves. Analysis of seed transcriptomes at different developmental stages showed that most of group I and IV HXKs are highly expressed 2-weeks after pollination (2WAP), compared to 4WAP for group III. BnHKXs are differentially expressed in susceptible and tolerant B. napus cultivars after fungal infection, suggesting the possible involvement in defense response. We generated rapeseed RNAi lines for BnHXK9, a member of relatively less characterized group IV, by pollen-mediated gene transformation. The seedlings of BnHXK9-RNAi lines showed delayed growth compared to the wild type. The RNAi plants were dwarf with curly leaves, suggesting the involvement of BnHXK9 in plant development. Collectively, our findings provides a comprehensive account of BnHXK gene family in an important crop and a starting point for further elucidation of their roles in sugar metabolism and sensing, as well as plant growth and development.

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  • 21 April 2018

    In the original version of this article the name of the second author was misspelled. The correct name is: Xiaomin Wang

Abbreviations

FA:

Fatty acid

Glc:

Glucose

Glc-6-P:

Glc-6-phosphate

HXK:

Hexokinase

MS:

Murashige and Skoog

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Acknowledgements

The authors thank Chunfeng Du and Shuanshi Xian, Cotton Research Institute of Shanxi Academy of Agricultural Sciences, for providing the plant material. This project is supported by Shanxi Provincial Science and Technology Research Grant (20140311010-4), China. The work is supported in part by the National Science Foundation under Cooperative Agreement no. 1355438 to L.Y.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Life Sciences, Shanxi University, Taiyuan, 030006, Shanxi, China

    Jingxue Wang, Xiaomin Wang, Siyu Geng, Yaohui Wang & Ling Yuan

  2. Department of Plant and Soil Sciences, Kentucky Tobacco Research and Development Center, University of Kentucky, Lexington, KY, 40546, USA

    Sanjay K. Singh, Sitakanta Pattanaik & Ling Yuan

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  1. Jingxue Wang
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  2. Xiaomin Wang
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Correspondence to Jingxue Wang or Ling Yuan.

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The ​original ​version ​of ​this ​article ​was ​revised: Spelling of second author was incorrect. Now it has been corrected.

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Wang, J., Wang, X., Geng, S. et al. Genome-wide identification of hexokinase gene family in Brassica napus: structure, phylogenetic analysis, expression, and functional characterization. Planta 248, 171–182 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00425-018-2888-8

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