Genome-wide Identification and Expression Analysis of the Cucumber PP2C Genes Family
Abstract Background: Type 2C protein phosphatase (PP2Cs) is a negative regulator of ABA signaling pathway, which play important roles in stress signal transduction in plants. However, cucumber (Cucumis sativus L.), as an important economic vegetable, has little research on its PP2C genes family. Results: This study conducted a genome-wide investigation of CsPP2C gene family. Through bioinformatics analysis, 56 CsPP2C genes were identified in cucumber. Based on phylogenetic analysis, the PP2C genes of cucumber and Arabidopsis were divided into 13 groups. Gene structure and conserved motif analysis showed that CsPP2C genes in the same group had similar gene structure and conserved domains. Collinearity analysis showed that segmental duplication events played a key role in the expansion of cucumber PP2C genes family. In addition, the expression of CsPP2Cs under different abiotic treatments was analyzed by qRT-PCR. The results showed that CsPP2C family genes showed different expression patterns under ABA, drought, salt and cold treatment, and a significantly responsive gene CsPP2Cs was obtained (CsPP2C3). By predicting the cis-elements in the promoter, we found that all CsPP2C members contained ABA response elements (ABRE) and drought response elements (MYC). Additionally, the expression patterns of CsPP2C genes were specific in different tissues. Conclusions: The results of this study provide a reference for the genome-wide identification of PP2C gene family in other species, and provide a basis for future studies on the function of PP2C gene in cucumber.