Expansion and Functional Diversification of <i>SKP1-Like</i> Genes in Wheat (<i>Triticum aestivum</i> L.)

• Main Authors: Imen HajSalah El Beji, Said Mouzeyar, Mohammed-Fouad Bouzidi, Jane Roche
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: MDPI AG 2019-07-01
• Series: International Journal of Molecular Sciences
• Subjects: SKP1; <i>Triticum aestivum</i>; structural and evolution analysis; Y2H
• Online Access: https://www.mdpi.com/1422-0067/20/13/3295

The ubiquitin proteasome 26S system (UPS), involving monomeric and multimeric E3 ligases is one of the most important signaling pathways in many organisms, including plants. The SCF (SKP1/Cullin/F-box) multimeric complex is particularly involved in response to development and stress signaling. The SKP1 protein (S-phase kinase-associated protein 1) is the core subunit of this complex. In this work, we firstly identified 92 and 87 non-redundant <i>Triticum aestivum</i> <i>SKP1-like</i> (<i>TaSKP</i>) genes that were retrieved from the latest release of the wheat genome database (International Wheat Genome Sequencing Consortium (IWGSC) RefSeq v1.0) and the genome annotation of the TGAC v1 respectively. We then investigated the structure, phylogeny, duplication events and expression patterns of the <i>SKP1-like</i> gene family in various tissues and environmental conditions using a wheat expression platform containing public data. <i>TaSKP1-like</i> genes were expressed differentially in response to stress conditions, displaying large genomic variations or short insertions/deletions which suggests functional specialization within <i>TaSKP1-like</i> genes. Finally, interactions between selected wheat FBX (F-box) proteins and putative ancestral TaSKP1-like proteins were tested using the yeast two-hybrid (Y2H) system to examine the molecular interactions. These observations suggested that six <i>Ta-SKP1</i> genes are likely to be ancestral genes, having similar functions as <i>ASK1</i> and <i>ASK2</i> in Arabidopsis, <i>OSK1</i> and <i>OSK20</i> in rice and <i>PpSKP1</i> and <i>PpSKP2</i> in <i>Physcomitrella patens</i>.