Deciphering the Roles of Peanut (Arachis hypogaea L.) Type-One Protein Phosphatase (TOPP) Family in Abiotic Stress Tolerance

Abstract

Dephosphorylation is one of the important mechanisms regulating signal transduction in plant growth and development and in response to abiotic stresses. Type-one protein phosphatases (TOPPs) catalyze a significant number of important dephosphorylation events in cells, and play essential roles in plant developmental regulations and multiple stress responses. Nevertheless, the knowledge regarding the peanut’s TOPP gene family remains extremely restricted. Thirteen TOPP genes (AhTOPP1-13) were discovered in the peanut genome database through the utilization of HMMER and BLASTP methods in this research. The thirteen AhTOPP genes were classed into three clades together with their Arabidopsis homologs based on phylogenetic tree, and mapped on nine of twenty chromosomes. The examination of gene compositions and protein patterns indicated resemblance in the structure of exons and introns, as well as the arrangement of motifs within the identical clade, which further reinforces the findings of phylogenetic analysis. All AhTOPP proteins possessed STPPase_N, Metallophos domains, and the core catalytic sites. Promoter analysis showed that the AhTOPP genes may be widely involved in peanut development, hormones, and stress response. The RNA-seq data revealed the presence of AhTOPP genes in twenty-two tissues, suggesting potential variations in the functionality of AhTOPP genes. Furthermore, drought and salt stresses induced the expression of multiple AhTOPP genes, including AhTOPP1, AhTOPP4, AhTOPP7, AhTOPP9, and AhTOPP13. It is worth mentioning that the AhTOPP genes’ expression could potentially be controlled by various transcription factors with different functions, including ERF, WRKY, MYB, and Dof. We will conduct specific functional studies on the peanut TOPP genes through transgenics in future research.