Polimorfismos do gene da plastoquinol oxidase (PTOX) em ecotipos de Arabidopsis thaliana (projeto 1001 genomas): correlações de expressão gênica e de variantes estruturais da proteína com a distribuição geográfica dos ecotipos

Abstract

Arabidopsis thaliana was the first plant to have its entirely genome sequenced and fits as the main model for plant studies. In addition, it inhabits several environments making it an interesting target to investigate genetic variations, such as polymorphisms. The study of DNA polymorphisms is important for research because it helps to identify and develop specific molecular markers. The single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) are the main types of polymorphisms explored and once identified are used to understand the adaptation and evolution of species, in addition contribute to the improvement of a particular cultivar. Plastoquinol oxidase (PTOX) is an oxidoreductase that acts on the stress response in plants. Thus, investigating the SNPs in this gene in A. thaliana may contribute to the discovery of molecular markers and suggests it as a possible target gene for plant breeding. The aim of this study was to identify the SNPs in the PTOX gene of 1190 accessions of A. thaliana, to predict the three-dimensional structures for the main polymorphisms, to analyze the gene expression in several conditions and to correlate them with the environment. We collected the genomic data and annotated the PTOX gene manually. And using the Columbia-0 ecotype as a reference all non-synonymous SNPs were identified. The coordinates of the accessions were used to classify the climate, rainfall and geographical morphology. The three-dimensional structure was predicted by the servers PHYRE2, I-TASSER and Modeller 9.16; and the polymorphic structural variants were performed by the PyMOL mutagenesis tool. The structures were submitted to molecular docking by the DockThor server. Gene expression was performed by TopHat software. In the bioinformatics analyzes 32 SNPs were found, of which 16 were non-synonyms and of these 11 changed to a different class amino acid. The amino acids from positions 13, 78, 81 and 323 were those with the highest mutation rate of all: 40%, 31%, 31% and 49%, respectively, and were found associated with rainfall and light intensity. The modified structure at position 323 seems favors a stronger interaction of the enzyme with the substrate, plastoquinol, than Columbia-0. For expression data the PTOX gene is constitutively expressed under normal conditions and induced under stress conditions, especially those involving light intensity. We concluded that the changes (SNPs) in the PTOX gene sequence suggest to be related to the environmental adaptation, that is, this influences the selection of mutant genotypes.