Genome-wide identification and expression pattern of SnRK gene family under several hormone treatments and its role in floral scent emission in Hedychium coronarium

Chutian Wang; Farhat Abbas; Yiwei Zhou; Yanguo Ke; Xinyue Li; Yuechong Yue; Yunyi Yu; Rangcai Yu; Yanping Fan

doi:10.7717/peerj.10883

Genome-wide identification and expression pattern of SnRK gene family under several hormone treatments and its role in floral scent emission in Hedychium coronarium

PeerJ. 2021 Mar 10:9:e10883. doi: 10.7717/peerj.10883. eCollection 2021.

Authors

Chutian Wang¹, Farhat Abbas¹, Yiwei Zhou¹, Yanguo Ke^{1

2}, Xinyue Li¹, Yuechong Yue¹, Yunyi Yu¹, Rangcai Yu³, Yanping Fan^{1

4}

Affiliations

¹ The Research Center for Ornamental Plants, College of Forestry and Landscape Architecture, South China Agricultural University, Guangdong, China.
² College of Economics and Management, Kunming university, Kunming, China.
³ College of Life Sciences, South China Agricultural University, Guangdong, China.
⁴ Guangdong Key Laboratory for Innovative Development and Utilization of Forest Plant Germplasm, South China Agricultural University, Guangdong, China.

Abstract

The SnRK (Snf1-Related protein Kinase) gene family plays crucial roles in various plant signaling pathways and stress-adaptive responses including biotic and abiotic stresses via activating protein phosphorylation pathways. However, there is no information available on the role of the SnRK gene family in Hedychium coronarium. H. coronarium is an important crop widely cultivated as an ornamental plant, herb, spice, or condiment. In this study, 60 HcSnRK genes were identified from the H. coronarium genomic and transcriptome data. Phylogenetic and gene structure analysis showed that the HcSnRK genes were divided into three groups (HcSnRK1, HcSnRK2 and HcSnRK3) and among them HcSnRK3 subfamily was further subdivided into two clades according to the number of introns. Chromosome localization analysis showed that HcSnRK genes were unevenly mapped onto all chromosomes, and the Ka/Ks ratio of 24 paralogues includes four tandems and 20 segmental duplications indicated that the HcSnRK gene family underwent a purifying selection. Cis-regulatory elements analysis suggested that the HcSnRK genes respond to multiple hormones and other stresses. The responsiveness of HcSnRK genes to several hormones was analyzed by quantitative real-time PCR. Based on the different transcriptome data, two candidates HcSnRK genes (HcSnRK2.2 and HcSnRK2.9) were screened out for further characterization . The subcellular localization experiment revealed that both genes were located in the nucleus and cytoplasm. Moreover, virus-induced gene silencing (VIGS) of HcSnRK2.2 and HcSnRK2.9 significantly reduced the floral volatile contents by suppressing the expression of terpene synthase genes (HcTPS1, HcTPS3, and HcTPS5), indicating that HcSnRK2.2 and HcSnRK2.9 genes play an important role in the regulatory mechanism of floral aroma. These results will provide novel insights into the functional dissection of H. coronarium SnRK gene family.

Keywords: Floral scent; Hedychium coronarium; Hormones; SnRK; Stress responses.

Grants and funding

This work was supported by the Key-Areas Research and Development Program of Guangdong Province (Grant no. 2020B0202022007) to Yanping Fan, National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant no. 31770738), the People’s Livelihood Science and Technology projects of Guangzhou (Grant no. 201903010054) to Yanping Fan. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.