Genome-Wide Identification, Evolution, and Transcriptional Profiling ofPP2CGene Family inBrassica rapa
The type 2C protein which belongs to the major group of protein phosphatases (PP2C) plays a vital role in abscisic acid (ABA) signaling and signal transductions processes. In the present study, 131PP2Cgenes were identified in total inBrassica rapaand categorized into thirteen subgroups based on their phylogenetic relationships. TheseB. rapaPP2C are structurally conserved based on amino acid sequence alignment, phylogenetic analysis, and conserved domains. Moreover, we utilized previously reported RNA-sequence data on various tissues (root, stem, leaf, flower, and silique), which suggests overlapping expression pattern in 29 paralogous gene pairs. The qRT-PCR validation of 15 paralogous gene pairs depicts distinct expression patterns in response to various abiotic stresses, such as heat, cold, ABA, and drought. Interestingly, stress-responsiveBraPP2Ccandidate genes were also identified, suggesting their significance in stress-tolerance mechanism inB. rapa. The evolutionary analysis for 15 paralogous gene pairs suggested that only three pairs have the positive selection and remaining were purifying in nature. The presented results of this study hasten our understanding of the molecular evolution of thePP2Cgene family inB. rapa. Thus, it will be ultimately helping in future research for facilitating the functional characterization ofBraPP2Cgenes in developing the abiotic stress tolerant plants.