The Characterization of G-Quadruplexes in Tobacco Genome and Their Function under Abiotic Stress.

Song, Kangkang; Li, Bin; Li, Haozhen; Zhang, Rui; Zhang, Xiaohua; Luan, Ruiwei; Liu, Ying; Yang, Long

Tobacco is an ideal model plant in scientific research. G-quadruplex is a guanine-rich DNA structure, which regulates transcription and translation. In this study, the prevalence and potential function of G-quadruplexes in tobacco were systematically analyzed. In tobacco genomes, there were 2,924,271,002 G-quadruplexes in the nuclear genome, 430,597 in the mitochondrial genome, and 155,943 in the chloroplast genome. The density of the G-quadruplex in the organelle genome was higher than that in the nuclear genome. G-quadruplexes were abundant in the transcription regulatory region of the genome, and a difference in G-quadruplex density in two DNA strands was also observed. The promoter of 60.4% genes contained at least one G-quadruplex. Compared with up-regulated differentially expressed genes (DEGs), the G-quadruplex density in down-regulated DEGs was generally higher under drought stress and salt stress. The G-quadruplex formed by simple sequence repeat (SSR) and its flanking sequence in the promoter region of the NtBBX (Nitab4.5_0002943g0010) gene might enhance the drought tolerance of tobacco. This study lays a solid foundation for further research on G-quadruplex function in tobacco and other plants.

QUADRUPLEX nucleic acids; ABIOTIC stress; MICROSATELLITE repeats; MITOCHONDRIAL DNA; GENOMES; DROUGHT management

International Journal of Molecular Sciences, 2024, Vol 25, Issue 8, p4331

1661-6596

Academic Journal

10.3390/ijms25084331