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Evolutionary and functional study of the CDPK gene family in wheat (Triticum aestivum L.)

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Abstract

Calcium-dependent protein kinases (CDPKs) are crucial sensors of calcium concentration changes in plant cells under diverse endogenous and environmental stimuli. We identified 20 CDPK genes from bread wheat and performed a comprehensive study on their structural, functional and evolutionary characteristics. Full-length cDNA sequences of 14 CDPKs were obtained using various approaches. Wheat CDPKs were found to be similar to their counterparts in rice in genomic structure, GC content, subcellular localization, and subgroup classification. Divergence time estimation of wheat CDPK gene pairs and wheat–rice orthologs suggested that most duplicated genes already existed in the common ancestor of wheat and rice. The number of CDPKs in diploid wheat genome was estimated to be at least 26, a number close to that in rice, Arabidopsis, and poplar. However, polymorphism among EST sequences uncovered transcripts of all three homoeologous alleles for 13 out of 20 CDPKs. Thus, the hexaploid wheat should have 2–3 fold more CDPK genes expressing in their cells than the diploid species. Wheat CDPK genes were found to respond to various biotic and abiotic stimuli, including cold, hydrogen peroxide (H2O2), salt, drought, powdery mildew (Blumeria graminis tritici, Bgt), as well as phytohormones abscisic acid (ABA) and gibberellic acid (GA). Each CDPK gene often responded to multiple treatments, suggesting that wheat CDPKs are converging points for multiple signal transduction pathways. The current work represents the first comprehensive study of CDPK genes in bread wheat and provides a foundation for further functional study of this important gene family in Triticeae.

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Abbreviations

ABA:

Abscisic acid

Bgt :

Blumeria graminis tritici

CDPK:

Calcium-dependent protein kinase

GA:

Gibberellin

H2O2 :

Hydrogen peroxide

MYA:

Million years ago

NLS:

Nuclear localization signal

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Acknowledgements

This work is supported in part by Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC, #30771336), National HITECH Research and Development Program of China (“863” program, #2006AA10A104), and National Basic Research Program of China (“973” program, #2004CB117200). We thank Drs. Franziska Turck and Bekir Ülker at Max Planck Institute for Plant Breeding for providing C-GFP vector. We also thank Dr. Yongfu Fu for his help in vector construction and Mr. Charlse H. Leseberg’s critical reading of this manuscript.

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Correspondence to Long Mao.

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Li, AL., Zhu, YF., Tan, XM. et al. Evolutionary and functional study of the CDPK gene family in wheat (Triticum aestivum L.). Plant Mol Biol 66, 429–443 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11103-007-9281-5

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