Computational analysis of potential candidate genes involved in the cold stress response of ten Rosaceae members

Abstract

Abstract Background Plant species from Rosaceae family are economically important. One of the major environmental factors impacting those species is cold stress. Although several Rosaceae plant genomes have recently been sequenced, there have been very few research conducted on cold upregulated genes and their promoter binding sites. In this study, we used computational approaches to identify and analyse potential cold stress response genes across ten Rosaceae family members. Results Cold stress upregulated gene data from apple and strawberry were used to identify syntelogs in other Rosaceae species. Gene duplication analysis was carried out to better understand the distribution of these syntelog genes in different Rosaceae members. A total of 11,145 popular abiotic stress transcription factor-binding sites were identified in the upstream region of these potential cold-responsive genes, which were subsequently categorised into distinct transcription factor (TF) classes. MYB classes of transcription factor binding site (TFBS) were abundant, followed by bHLH, WRKY, and AP2/ERF. TFBS patterns in the promoter regions were compared among these species and gene families, found to be quite different even amongst functionally related syntelogs. A case study on important cold stress responsive transcription factor family, AP2/ERF showed less conservation in TFBS patterns in the promoter regions. This indicates that syntelogs from the same group may be comparable at the gene level but not at the level of cis-regulatory elements. Therefore, for such genes from the same family, different repertoire of TFs could be recruited for regulation and expression. Duplication events must have played a significant role in the similarity of TFBS patterns amongst few syntelogs of closely related species. Conclusions Our study overall suggests that, despite being from the same gene family, different combinations of TFs may play a role in their regulation and expression. The findings of this study will provide information about potential genes involved in the cold stress response, which will aid future functional research of these gene families involved in many important biological processes.