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Functional Plant Biology Functional Plant Biology Society
Plant function and evolutionary biology
RESEARCH ARTICLE

Evolution and expression analysis of the sorghum ubiquitin-conjugating enzyme family

Liqiang Jia https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1809-5015 A B , QiuFang Zhao A and Shu Chen A
+ Author Affiliations
- Author Affiliations

A Key Laboratory of Tropical Fruit Biology (Ministry of Agriculture), South Subtropical Crop Research Institute, Chinese Academy of Tropical Agricultural Science, Zhanjiang 524091, China.

B Corresponding author. Email: liqiangj@zju.edu.cn

Functional Plant Biology 46(3) 236-247 https://doi.org/10.1071/FP18184
Submitted: 13 July 2018  Accepted: 2 October 2018   Published: 25 October 2018

Abstract

Ubiquitin-conjugating enzymes (UBCs), which catalyse the transfer of ubiquitin to substrate or E3 ligases, are key enzymes in ubiquitination modifications of target proteins. Current knowledge regarding the sorghum (Sorghum bicolor (L.) Moench) ubiquitin-conjugating enzyme (SbUBC) family remains very limited. We identified 53 UBC-encoding genes in the sorghum genome and divided these into 18 groups according to their phylogenetic relationship with Arabidopsis thaliana (L.) Heynh., which was further supported by conserved motif and gene structure analyses. Different expression levels under a variety of abiotic stresses suggested that these might participate in distinct signalling pathways and that they underwent functional divergence during evolution. Furthermore, several SbUBC genes responded to single treatments, and individual SbUBC genes responded to multiple treatments, suggesting that sorghum UBCs may mediate crosstalk among different signalling pathways. Overall, the results provide valuable information for better understanding the classification and putative functions of sorghum UBC-encoding genes.

Additional keywords: abiotic stress, expression profiles, genomic characterisation, Sorghum bicolor, UBC family.


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