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Acta Prataculturae Sinica ›› 2025, Vol. 34 ›› Issue (1): 174-190.DOI: 10.11686/cyxb2024133

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Genome-wide identification of the GLK gene family in alfalfa and their transcript profiles under osmotic stress

Chao MA1(), Xi-jing SUN1(), Ya-lan FENG2, Shuang ZHOU1, Ji-hao JU1, Yi WU1, Tian-ning WANG1, Bin-bin GUO1, Jun ZHANG1()   

  1. 1.Agronomy College,Henan University of Science and Technology,Luoyang 471000,China
    2.College of Life Science,Wuchang University of Technology,Wuhan 430000,China
  • Received:2024-04-18 Revised:2024-06-05 Online:2025-01-20 Published:2024-11-04
  • Contact: Jun ZHANG
  • About author:First author contact:These authors contributed equally to this work.

Abstract:

GLK (Golden2-like or G2-like) transcription factors belong to the GARP superfamily, whose members play crucial roles in plant growth and development. Members of the GLK gene family play important roles in regulating plant chloroplast development, chlorophyll biosynthesis, and the abiotic stress response. The GLK gene family has been systematically identified in many plant species, but not yet in tetraploid alfalfa (Medicago sativa). In this study, we used bioinformatics methods to identify 100 GLK genes (MsGLKs) in the genome of the alfalfa cultivar “Xinjiang Daye”. Further analyses were conducted to explore the physicochemical properties of their putative encoded products, chromosome localization, phylogenetic relationships, cis-acting elements in their promoter regions, and transcript profiles under osmotic stress and exogenous abscisic acid (ABA) treatment. The results showed that the 100 MsGLK genes were unevenly distributed on the 32 chromosomes, and encoded polypeptides with sequence lengths ranging from 201 to 860 amino acids. In a phylogenetic analysis, the MsGLK family members were divided into 13 groups. A collinearity analysis detected 193 MsGLK gene duplicates in the alfalfa genome, and a analysis of the ratio of the number of nonsynonymous substitutions per nonsynonymous site to the number of synonymous substitutions per synonymous site (Ka/Ks) revealed that most of the duplicated gene pairs have undergone purification selection. A range of cis-acting elements were detected in MsGLK gene promoter regions, and were involved in plant growth and development, hormone responses, and stress responses. Analyses of gene transcript profiles revealed that 12 MsGLKs showed tissue-specific expression patterns, and 25 MsGLKs were expressed in all tissues. Further RT-qPCR analyses revealed that some MsGLK genes were activated to some degree in response to drought stress, salt stress, and exogenous ABA treatment. The results of this study provide reference information for further research on the function of MsGLK genes and for the genetic improvement of stress resistance in alfalfa.

Key words: alfalfa, GLK gene, bioinformatics, osmotic stress, expression patterns