AUTHOR=Nawade Bhagwat , Bosamia Tejas C. , Lee Jae Hyun , Jang Jin Hoon , Lee Ok Ran 

TITLE=Genome-wide characterization of the soybean DOMAIN OF UNKNOWN FUNCTION 679 membrane protein gene family highlights their potential involvement in growth and stress response

JOURNAL=Frontiers in Plant Science

VOLUME=14

YEAR=2023

URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/plant-science/articles/10.3389/fpls.2023.1216082

DOI=10.3389/fpls.2023.1216082

ISSN=1664-462X

ABSTRACT=<p>The <italic>DMP</italic> (DUF679 membrane proteins) family is a plant-specific gene family that encodes membrane proteins. The DMP family genes are suggested to be involved in various programmed cell death processes and gamete fusion during double fertilization in <italic>Arabidopsis.</italic> However, their functional relevance in other crops remains unknown. This study identified 14 genes from the DMP family in soybean (<italic>Glycine max</italic>) and characterized their physiochemical properties, subcellular location, gene structure, and promoter regions using bioinformatics tools. Additionally, their tissue-specific and stress-responsive expressions were analyzed using publicly available transcriptome data. Phylogenetic analysis of 198 <italic>DMP</italic>s from monocots and dicots revealed six clades, with clade-I encoding senescence-related <italic>AtDMP1/2</italic> orthologues and clade-II including pollen-specific <italic>AtDMP8/9</italic> orthologues. The largest clade, clade-III, predominantly included monocot <italic>DMP</italic>s, while monocot- and dicot-specific <italic>DMP</italic>s were assembled in clade-IV and clade-VI, respectively. Evolutionary analysis suggests that soybean <italic>GmDMP</italic>s underwent purifying selection during evolution. Using 68 transcriptome datasets, expression profiling revealed expression in diverse tissues and distinct responses to abiotic and biotic stresses. The genes <italic>Glyma.09G237500</italic> and <italic>Glyma.18G098300</italic> showed pistil-abundant expression by qPCR, suggesting they could be potential targets for female organ-mediated haploid induction. Furthermore, cis-acting regulatory elements primarily related to stress-, hormone-, and light-induced pathways regulate <italic>GmDMP</italic>s, which is consistent with their divergent expression and suggests involvement in growth and stress responses. Overall, our study provides a comprehensive report on the soybean <italic>GmDMP</italic> family and a framework for further biological functional analysis of <italic>DMP</italic> genes in soybean or other crops.</p>