脱水素(dehydrin,DHN)属于LEA蛋白第二家族成员,是一种植物中广泛存在的亲水性蛋白,在干旱、低温和高盐等非生物胁迫的环境中起到重要作用。通过生物信息学方法对玉米全基因组DHN家族成员进行了鉴定,并进一步对其系统发育、基因结构、染色体定位和基因复制以及表达模式进行了系统分析。结果显示,在玉米DHN基因家族中共有5个家族成员,多物种系统发育进化树分析、基因结构以及基序分析都表明DHN家族成员在进化上具有高度的保守性。基因复制和物种间微共线性分析表明,在5个玉米DHN基因中存在着1对片段复制基因(ZmDHN1-ZmDHN2),玉米、高粱和水稻3个物种间存在2对直系同源基因(ZmDHN2-Sb04g032250.1,ZmDHN2-Os02g44870.1)。通过转录组表达数据分析表明,玉米DHN家族基因在不同发育时期具有不同的组织表达模式;同时,诱导表达模式分析表明ZmDHN基因的表达受到盐和干旱胁迫的显著诱导。该研究结果将为进一步鉴定玉米DHN家族重要的基因成员并对其开展功能分析奠定基础。
Dehydrins(DHN) is a hydrophilic protein widely distributed in plants. DHNs belong to class II in LEA protein family and have important roles in response to abiotic stresses, such as cold, drought and salt, etc. In this study, we performed a bioinformatics analysis to identify the members of the DHN family in maize. Subsequently, we carried out a systematic analysis of these genes, including phylogenetic relationship, gene structure, chromosome location, gene duplication and expression patterns. The results showed that a total of 5 DHN members were identified in maize, and the phylogenetic relationship, gene structure and motif analysis indicated that genes in the DHN family are highly conserved. Gene duplication and interspecies microsynteny analysis demonstrated that one segmental duplication pair(ZmDHN1-ZmDHN2) existed in maize DHN family, while two orthologous gene pairs(ZmDHN2-Sb04g032250.1and ZmDHN2-Os02g44870.1) were detected among maize, rice and sorghum. Analysis of transcriptional data indicated that the DHN genes had different expression patterns at different developmental stages. In addition, the expression of five ZmDHN genes was significantly induced under salt and drought stresses. This study provides a basis for the selection of important DHN genes for further functional analysis in maize.