Genome-wide identification of TaABCB gene family and TaABCB7 regulate phosphate starvation response in wheat

Guoqing Cui^1*Haigang Wang¹Yanzhen Wang¹Xia Liu¹Menglin Lei¹Huibing Qin¹Rui Huang¹Zhixin Mu^1*Yanming Bai^2*

• ¹Crop Genetic Resources Institute, Shanxi Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Taiyuan, Shanxi Province, China
• ²College of Agronomy, Gansu Agricultural University, Lanzhou, Gansu Province, China

The ABCB subfamily of ATP-binding cassette (ABC) superfamily is a class of transporters that play crucial roles in multiple aspects of plant life activities, particularly in the transport of polar auxin and brassinosteroids. Although the characterization of ABCB has been performed in various plants, little is known about their function in wheat. In this study, a total of 99 TaABCB members were identified and classified into four categories based on their conserved domains and phylogenetic relationships, and these members were unevenly distributed on all 21 chromosomes.A comprehensive genome-wide analysis of gene structure, protein motifs, gene duplication, collinearity, and cis-acting elements were also investigated. Transcriptome analysis showed that different TaABCB members exhibited varied expression patterns under phosphate starvation stress.We also found that TaABCB7 may regulate the phosphate starvation response in wheat. More importantly, we identified an elite haplotype H001 of the candidate gene TaABCB7 and found that it was gradually being selected and utilized in the breeding improvement process. In conclusion, this study extends comprehensive informations of the TaABCB members, and provides a potential gene resource for wheat molecular marker assisted selection breeding.