AUTHOR=Feng Xue , Meng Quan , Zeng Jianbin , Yu Qian , Xu Dengan , Dai Xuehuan , Ge Lei , Ma Wujun , Liu Wenxing 

TITLE=Genome-wide identification of sucrose non-fermenting-1-related protein kinase genes in maize and their responses to abiotic stresses

JOURNAL=Frontiers in Plant Science

VOLUME=13

YEAR=2022

URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/plant-science/articles/10.3389/fpls.2022.1087839

DOI=10.3389/fpls.2022.1087839

ISSN=1664-462X

ABSTRACT=<sec><title>Introduction</title><p>Protein kinases play an important role in plants in response to environmental changes through signal transduction. As a large family of protein kinases, sucrose non-fermenting-1 (SNF1)-related kinases (SnRKs) were found and functionally verified in many plants. Nevertheless, little is known about the <italic>SnRK</italic> family of <italic>Zea mays</italic>.</p></sec><sec><title>Methods</title><p>Evolutionary relationships, chromosome locations, gene structures, conserved motifs, and cis-elements in promoter regions were systematically analyzed. Besides, tissue-specific and stress-induced expression patterns of <italic>ZmSnRKs</italic> were determined. Finally, functional regulatory networks between <italic>ZmSnRKs</italic> and other proteins or miRNAs were constructed.</p></sec><sec><title>Results and Discussion</title><p>In total, 60 <italic>SnRK</italic> genes located on 10 chromosomes were discovered in maize. <italic>ZmSnRKs</italic> were classified into three subfamilies (<italic>ZmSnRK1</italic>, <italic>ZmSnRK2</italic>, and <italic>ZmSnRK3</italic>), consisting of 4, 14, and 42 genes, respectively. Gene structure analysis showed that 33 of the 42 <italic>ZmSnRK3</italic> genes contained only one exon. Most <italic>ZmSnRK</italic> genes contained at least one ABRE, MBS, and LTR cis-element and a few <italic>ZmSnRK</italic> genes had AuxRR-core, P-box, MBSI, and SARE ciselements in their promoter regions. The Ka:Ks ratio of 22 paralogous <italic>ZmSnRK</italic> gene pairs revealed that the <italic>ZmSnRK</italic> gene family had experienced a purifying selection. Meanwhile, we analyzed the expression profiles of <italic>ZmSnRKs</italic>, and they exhibited significant differences in various tissues and abiotic stresses. In addition, A total of eight ZmPP2Cs, which can interact with <italic>ZmSnRK</italic> proteins, and 46 miRNAs, which can target 24 <italic>ZmSnRKs</italic>, were identified. Generally, these results provide valuable information for further function verification of <italic>ZmSnRKs</italic>, and improve our understanding of the role of <italic>ZmSnRKs</italic> in the climate resilience of maize.</p></sec>