Identification, Evolutionary and Expression Analysis of PYL-PP2C-SnRK2s Gene Families in Soybean

Abstract

Abscisic acid (ABA) plays a crucial role in various aspects of plant growth and development, including fruit development and ripening, seed dormancy, and involvement in response to various environmental stresses. In almost all higher plants, ABA signal transduction requires three core components; namely, PYR/PYL/RCAR ABA receptors (PYLs), type 2C protein phosphatases (PP2Cs), and class III SNF-1-related protein kinase 2 (SnRK2s). The exploration of these three core components is not comprehensive in soybean. This study identified the <i>GmPYL-PP2C-SnRK2s</i> gene family members by using the JGI Phytozome and NCBI database. The gene family composition, conservation, gene structure, evolutionary relationship, <i>cis</i>-acting elements of promoter regions, and its coding protein domains were analyzed. In the entire genome of the soybean, there are 21 <i>PYLs</i>, 36 <i>PP2Cs</i>, and 21 <i>SnRK2s</i> genes; further, by phylogenetic and conservation analysis, 21 <i>PYLs</i> genes are classified into 3 groups, 36 <i>PP2Cs</i> genes are classified into seven groups, and 21 <i>SnRK2s</i> genes are classified into 3 groups. The conserved motifs and domain analysis showed that all the <i>GmPYLs</i> gene family members contain START-like domains, the <i>GmPP2Cs</i> gene family contains PP2Cc domains, and the <i>GmSnRK2s</i> gene family contains S_TK domains, respectively. Furthermore, based on the high-throughput transcriptome sequencing data, the results showed differences in the expression patterns of <i>GmPYL-PP2C-SnRK2s</i> gene families in different tissue parts of the same variety, and the same tissue part of different varieties. Our study provides a basis for further elucidation of the identification of <i>GmPYL-PP2C-SnRK2s</i> gene family members and analysis of their evolution and expression patterns, which helps to understand the molecular mechanism of soybean response to abiotic stress. In addition, this provides a conceptual basis for future studies of the soybean ABA core signal pathway.