Chinese Bulletin of Botany ›› 2025, Vol. 60 ›› Issue (3): 377-392.DOI: 10.11983/CBB24117  cstr: 32102.14.CBB24117

• RESEARCH ARTICLES • Previous Articles     Next Articles

Identification of the Spinach AT-hook Gene Family and Analysis of Expression Profiles

Yang Li, Qu Xitong, Chen Zihang, Zou Tingting, Wang Quanhua, Wang Xiaoli*()   

  1. Development and Collaborative Innovation Center of Plant Germplasm Resources, College of Life Sciences, Shanghai Normal University, Shanghai 200234, China
  • Received:2024-07-30 Accepted:2024-12-26 Online:2025-05-10 Published:2024-12-27
  • Contact: *E-mail: wangxl@shnu.edu.cn

Abstract: INTRODUCTION: The AT-hook motif nuclear localized (AHL) gene family is a highly conserved transcription factors involved in plant growth, development, and stress responses, but their roles in spinach are still unknown. RATIONALE:To reveal the basic characteristics of the AHL family in spinach, members of the spinach SoAHLfamily were identified at the whole-genome level, and their physicochemical properties, gene structure, conserved motifs, promoter elements, and salicylic acid-responsive expression profiles were analyzed in this study.RESULTS: The results revealed 19 SoAHL family members in the spinach genome, which were unevenly distributed across six chromosomes. These SoAHL members can be classified into three branches, with 10 members in subfamily I and 9 members in subfamily II. The sequence composition of PPC and AT-hook conserved motifs varies among subfamilies; most of the SoAHL genes are located in the nucleus, cytoplasm, and mitochondrion. Members of subfamily I of SoAHL have no introns, whereas members of subfamily II contain 4-5 introns. The varying numbers of cis-acting elements relate to phytohormones and abiotic stress responses were distributed upstream of the promoters of the SoAHL members. The SoAHL genes can be expressed in roots, leaves, and petioles, with most genes expressed at relatively high levels in roots. The expression of two SoAHL genes (SOV6g041850.1 and SOV2g038950.1) was significantly induced by salicylic acid treatment. The expression profiles and salicylic acid-induced expression levels of SOV2g031340.1 and SOV4g018880.1 were highly correlated with the folic acid content, which may play a role in the spinach response to the salicylic acid signaling pathway. The transient overexpression of SOV4g018880.1 increased the folate content of spinach leaves by 1.75 times.CONCLUSION: The results from the sequence characteristics, expression profiles and exogenous salicylic acid treatment revealed that the SoAHLs had potential functional diversity and that specific members may have positive effects on spinach folate accumulation. Our results will lay the foundation for further resolving the function of spinach AT-hook genes.

Phenotype (A), total folate content (B) and expression analysis of SoAHL (C) under 50 μmol∙L-1 salicylic acid (SA) treatment for 5 days (D5) and 7 days (D7). CK: Control

Key words: spinach, AT-hook gene family, bioinformatics, salicylic acid