Expression and bioinformatic analysis of ANTPS1 gene in naked oats (Avena Nuda L.)

Abstract

Ongoing climate change has led to more extreme global temperature variations, and coupled with other environmental issues such as soil salinization, these changes pose serious challenges to future farming efforts. As such, it is vitally important both to identify crops able to resist temperature and salt stress and to explore the underlying molecular mechanisms governing such resistance in order to facilitate the selective production of crops with superior resistance traits able to persist in an increasingly harsh global environment. To that end, in this study, PCR was used to isolate the AnTPS1 gene, which encodes trehalose 6-phosphate synthases (TPS). Real-time PCR was used to detect the expression of the gene in different tissues and under low temperature. We used a bioinformatics approach to assess key characteristics of the AnTPS1 gene, determining its physicochemical properties, signal peptides, transmembrane structural domains, hydrophilicity, hydrophobicity, secondary structures, modules, and tertiary structures. We isolated an important abiotic stress resistance gene AnTPS1 in naked oats. Real-time quantitative PCR analysis showed AnTPS1 to be expressed in different tissues of naked oats, and we found that low temperature stress was sufficient to induce the upregulation of this gene. We determined that the protein encoded by AnTPS1 gene is a soluble hydrophobic protein composed of 326 amino acids, containing signal peptides and transmembrane structures. The protein does not feature crimp spirals, instead featuring a-helices and irregular crimps are the main secondary structure elements. Together, these results provide an important biochemical foundation for the study of AnTPS1 as a putative cold-resistance gene in naked oats, and may offer valuable insights necessary for enabling selective production of temperature-resistant crops suitable for growth in previously untenable locations.