Calmodulin and calmodulin-like gene family in barley: Identification, characterization and expression analyses
Kangfeng Cai, Liuhui Kuang, Wenhao Yue, Shanggeng Xie, Xue Xia, Guoping Zhang, Junmei Wang
Abstract
Calmodulin (CaM) and calmodulin-like (CML) proteins are Ca 2+ relays and play diverse and multiple roles in plant growth, development and stress responses. However, CaM/CML gene family has not been identified in barley ( Hordeum vulgare ). In the present study, 5 HvCaMs and 80 HvCMLs were identified through a genome-wide analysis. All HvCaM proteins possessed 4 EF-hand motifs, whereas HvCMLs contained 1 to 4 EF-hand motifs. HvCaM2 , HvCaM3 and HvCaM5 coded the same polypeptide although they differed in nucleotide sequence, which was identical to the polypeptides coded by OsCaM1-1 , OsCaM1-2 and OsCaM1-3 . HvCaMs/CMLs were unevenly distributed over barley 7 chromosomes, and could be phylogenetically classified into 8 groups. HvCaMs/CMLs differed in gene structure, cis -acting elements and tissue expression patterns. Segmental and tandem duplication were observed among HvCaMs/CMLs during evolution. HvCML16 , HvCML18 , HvCML50 and HvCML78 were dispensable genes and the others were core genes in barley pan-genome. In addition, 14 HvCaM/CML genes were selected to examine their responses to salt, osmotic and low potassium stresses by qRT-PCR, and their expression were stress-and time-dependent. These results facilitate our understanding and further functional identification of HvCaMs/CMLs .