Genome-wide Insilico analysis of plant two component signaling system in woody model plant Populus trichocarpa

Abstract

The two-component system (TCS) which works on the principle of histidine-aspartate phosphorelay signaling, is known to play an important role in diverse physiologicalprocesses in lower organisms and emerged as an important signaling system in both prokaryotic as well as eukaryotic systems including plants. Employing various bioinformatics tools, we have characterized TCS signaling candidate genes in the genome of Populus trichocarpa. In this study we present an overview of TCS gene families in P. tricocarpha, including gene structures, conserved motifs, chromosome locations, andphylogeny. This analysis indicates a total of 49 genes out of which at least 12 belongs tohistidine kinases (8 histidine kinase (PtHK) and 4 ethylene responsive (PtETR)), 12 pseudo phosphotransfers(PtHPT) and 9 type-A(PtRRA), 11 type-B (PtRRB), and 5 pseudo-responseregulator proteins (PtPRR) present on different chromosomes. Fourteen genes encode 22putative histidine kinases with a conserved histidine and other typical histidine kinasesignature sequences, five phosphotransfer genes encoding seven phosphotransfer proteins,and 32 response regulator genes encoding 44 proteins. Structural and phylogenetic analysesof populous TCS members with their Arabidopsis and rice counterparts revealed similararchitecture of their TCSs. Our analysis provides insights into the conservation anddivergence of this important signaling machinery in woody plants.