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Expressional characterization of galacturonosyltransferase-like gene family in Eucalyptus grandis implies a role in abiotic stress responses

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Abstract

Glycosyltransferase (GT) plays a pivotal role in cell wall biosynthesis in plants. Galacturonosyltransferase-like (GATL) genes, belonging to the GT8 family, have been proven to be involved in pectin and/or xylan biosynthesis of the cell wall. Here, we identified eight GATL genes from the Eucalyptus grandis genome and characterized the gene structure and chromosomal location. The genes were found to be distributed across five chromosomes, including two pairs in block duplication regions. None of the EgrGATL genes contained introns. And, with the exception of EgrGATL8, the remainder of the EgrGATL proteins possessed the three classic motifs characteristic of all GATL proteins. Expression analysis in the different tissues showed that EgrGATL1, EgrGATL4, and EgrGATL8 were highly expressed in xylem and phloem; EgrGATL6 exhibited the highest expression in leaves, and in phloem and leaves, EgrGATL2 and EgrGATL3 both exhibited very low expression. However, the abiotic stress response of plants can be affected by changes in the components and structure of the cell wall. The expression patterns of EgrGALTs under low-temperature, high-temperature, drought, salinity, and abscisic acid (ABA) treatments were assessed by qRT-PCR. The results showed that most of the EgrGATL genes could be induced under low temperature, and some were even able to increase their expression level under high temperature. Under drought conditions, the expression levels of most of the genes initially increased and then decreased. Similar expression patterns were observed in leaves under treatment with NaCl and ABA. Our results provide fundamental information towards the functional dissection of EgrGATL genes and their potential involvement in improving plant abiotic stress tolerance.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the State Key Laboratory of Tree Genetics and Breeding (Northeast Forestry University) grant 201101, Zhejiang Province Key Project for Science and Technology grant (2016C02056). We thank the anonymous reviewers for their comments and suggestions on the manuscript.

Data archiving statement

The annotated nucleotide sequences of GATL genes in E. grandis, A. thaliana, O. sativa, and P. trichocarpa in NCBI GenBank database are in the following accession numbers: XM_010030945, XM_010045536, XM_010027746, XM_010045995, XM_010039834, XM_010072152, XM_010071957, and XM_001988622; NM_101787, NM_113753, NM_114936, NM_101196, NM_111501, NM_100152, NM_116131, NM_102263, NM_105677, and NM_178954; XM_015786450, XM_015767508, XM_015777620, XM_015781767, XM_015790219, XM_015777291, and XM_015773839; and XM_002302433, XM_024595933, XM_006383195, XM_002310744, XM_002312345, XM_002311900, XM_002311753, XM_024609252, XM_002314848, XM_002315384, XM_006374993, and XM_002320288. Details of the sequences are listed in Table S3 in supplementary data files.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. State Key Laboratory of Subtropical Silviculture, College of Forestry and Biotechnology, Zhejiang Agriculture and Forestry University, Room 103, Zhineng Lab Building, Wushu Rd 666, Hangzhou, 311300, China

    Longjun Cheng, Xiaoxiang Ni, Lijuan Sun, Xiaofei Wang & Zaikang Tong

  2. State Key Laboratory of Tree Genetics and Breeding, Northeast Forestry University, Harbin, 150040, China

    Mi Zheng

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  1. Longjun Cheng
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Correspondence to Longjun Cheng.

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Communicated by J. Beaulieu

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Cheng, L., Ni, X., Zheng, M. et al. Expressional characterization of galacturonosyltransferase-like gene family in Eucalyptus grandis implies a role in abiotic stress responses. Tree Genetics & Genomes 14, 81 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11295-018-1294-5

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