Genome-Wide Identification and Expression Analysis of WNK Kinase Gene Family in Acorus

• Published in: International journal of molecular sciences 2023-12, Vol.24 (24), p.17594
• Main Authors: Ji, Hongyu, Wu, You, Zhao, Xuewei, Miao, Jiang-Lin, Deng, Shuwen, Li, Shixing, Gao, Rui, Liu, Zhong-Jian, Zhai, Junwen
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: abiotic stress; Acorus; Acorus - metabolism; Biological clocks; Chromosomes; Circadian rhythm; Enzymes; expression pattern; Gene Expression Regulation, Plant; Genes; Genomes; Kinases; Localization; Phylogenetics; Phylogeny; Physiology; Protein Kinases - genetics; Protein Kinases - metabolism; Protein Serine-Threonine Kinases - metabolism; Proteins; Serine - metabolism; WNK gene family
• ISSN: 1422-0067; 1661-6596; 1422-0067
• DOI: 10.3390/ijms242417594

WNK (With No Lysine) kinases are members of serine/threonine protein kinase family, which lack conserved a catalytic lysine (K) residue in protein kinase subdomain II and this residue is replaced by either asparagine, serine, or glycine residues. They are involved in various physiological regulations of flowering time, circadian rhythms, and abiotic stresses in plants. In this study, we identified the gene family in two species of , and analyzed their phylogenetic relationship, physiochemical properties, subcellular localization, collinearity, and -elements. The results showed twenty-two s in two (seven in and fifteen in ) have been identified and clustered into five main clades phylogenetically. Gene structure analysis showed all s possessed essential STKc_WNK or PKc_like superfamily domains, and the gene structures and conserved motifs of the same clade were similar. All the s harbored a large number of light response elements, plant hormone signaling elements, and stress resistance elements. Through a collinearity analysis, two and fourteen segmental duplicated gene pairs were identified in the and , respectively. Moreover, we observed tissue-specificity of s in using transcriptomic data, and their expressions in response to salt stress and cold stress were analyzed by qRT-PCR. The results showed s are involved in the regulation of abiotic stresses. There were significant differences in the expression levels of most of the s in the leaves and roots of under salt stress and cold stress, among which two members in ( and ) and two members in ( and ) were most sensitive to stress. In summary, this paper will significantly contribute to the understanding of s in monocots and thus provide a set up for functional genomics studies of protein kinases.