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Structure and expression of phosphoglucan phosphatase genes of Like Sex Four1 and Like Sex Four2 in barley

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Abstract

Phosphoglucan phosphatases (Like-SEX4 1 and 2; LSF1 and LSF2) were reported to play roles in starch metabolism in leaves of Arabidopsis. In this study, we identified and mapped the LSF1 and LSF2 genes in barley (HvLSF1 and HvLSF2), characterized their gene and protein structures, predicted the cis-elements of their promoters, and analysed their expression patterns. HvLSF1 and HvLSF2 were mapped on the long arm of chromosome 1H (1HL) and 5H (5HL), respectively. Our results revealed varied exon–intron structures and conserved exon–intron junctions in both LSF1 and LSF2 from a range of analysed species. Alignment of protein sequences indicated that cTP and CT domains are much less varied than the functional domains (PDZ, DPS and CBM48). LSF2 was mainly expressed in anthers of barley and rice, and in leaf of Arabidopsis. LSF1 was mainly expressed in endosperm of barley and leaf of Arabidopsis and rice. The expression of LSF1 exhibited a diurnal pattern in rice only and that of LSF2 in both rice and Arabidopsis. Of the investigated stresses, only cold stress significantly reduced expression level of LSF1 and LSF2 in barley and LSF2 in Arabidopsis at late stages of the treatments. While heat treatment significantly decreased expression levels of LSF1 at middle stage (4 h) of a treatment in Arabidopsis only. The strong relationships detected between LSF2 and starch excess4 (SEX4), glucan, water dikinases or phosphoglucan, water dikinases were identified and discussed. Taken together, these results provide information of genetic manipulation of LSF1 and LSF2, especially in monocotyledon and further elucidate their regulatory mechanism in plant development.

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Abbreviations

aa:

Acid residues

ABA:

Abscisic acid

CBM48:

Carbohydrate-binding module 48

CDS:

Coding sequences

CT:

C-terminal

cTP:

Chloroplast transit peptide

DAP:

Days after pollination

DSP:

Dual specificity phosphatase

GWD:

Glucan, water phosphotransferase

NCBI:

National Center for Biotechnology Information

ORF:

Open reading frame

PWD:

Phosphoglucan, water dikinase

LSF1:

Like-SEX4 1

LSF2:

Like-SEX4 2

SEX4:

Phosphoglucan phosphatase starch excess4

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Acknowledgments

This work was supported by the International Science and Cooperation Program of China (No. 2015DFA30600), the Applied Basic Research Programs of Science and Technology Department of Sichuan Province (2016JY0010) and the Key Projects of Education Department of Sichuan Province (16ZA0038). We appreciate the anonymous referees for critical reading of the manuscript.

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    Authors and Affiliations

    1. Triticeae Research Institute, Sichuan Agricultural University, Chengdu, 611130, Sichuan, China

      Jian Ma, Shang Gao, Qian-Tao Jiang, Qiang Yang, Min Sun, Ji-Rui Wang, Peng-Fei Qi, Ya-Xi Liu, Wei Li, Zhi-En Pu, Xiu-Jin Lan & Yu-Ming Wei

    2. CSIRO Agriculture Flagship, 306 Carmody Road, St Lucia, Brisbane, QLD, 4067, Australia

      Chunji Liu

    3. Key Laboratory of Southwestern Crop Germplasm Utilization, Ministry of Agriculture, Sichuan Agricultural University, Ya’an, 625014, Sichuan, China

      You-Liang Zheng

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    1. Jian Ma
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    Correspondence to Qian-Tao Jiang or You-Liang Zheng.

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    Jian Ma and Shang Gao have contributed equally to this paper.

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    10709_2016_9900_MOESM1_ESM.tif

    Fig. S1. Phylogenetic relationship from a range of species based on LSF1 and LSF2 protein sequences using maximum likelihood method (see “Materials and methods” for accession numbers) (TIFF 778 kb)

    Supplementary material 2 (XLSX 11 kb)

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    Supplementary material 4 (XLSX 11 kb)

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    Supplementary material 6 (XLSX 11 kb)

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    Ma, J., Gao, S., Jiang, QT. et al. Structure and expression of phosphoglucan phosphatase genes of Like Sex Four1 and Like Sex Four2 in barley. Genetica 144, 313–323 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10709-016-9900-7

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