BACKGROUND Abscisic acid-, stress-, and ripening-induced (ASR) genes are a class of plant specific transcription factors (TFs), which play important roles in plant development, growth and abiotic stress responses. The wheat ASRs have not been described in genome-wide yet. METHODS We predicted the transmembrane regions and subcellular localization using the TMHMM server, and Plant-mPLoc server and CELLO v2.5, respectively. Then the phylogeny tree was built by MEGA7. The exon-intron structures, conserved motifs and TFs binding sites were analyzed by GSDS, MEME program and PlantRegMap, respectively. RESULTS In wheat, 33ASR genes were identified through a genome-wide survey and classified into six groups. Phylogenetic analyses revealed that the TaASR proteins in the same group tightly clustered together, compared with those from other species. Duplication analysis indicated that the TaASR gene family has expanded mainly through tandem and segmental duplication events. Similar gene structures and conserved protein motifs of TaASRs in wheat were identified in the same groups. ASR genes contained various TF binding cites associated with the stress responses in the promoter region. Gene expression was generally associated with the expected group-specific expression pattern in five tissues, including grain, leaf, root, spike and stem, indicating the broad conservation of ASR genes function during wheat evolution. The qRT-PCR analysis revealed that several ASRs were up-regulated in response to NaCl and PEG stress. CONCLUSION We identified ASR genes in wheat and found that gene duplication events are the main driving force for ASR gene evolution in wheat. The expression of wheat ASR genes was modulated in responses to multiple abiotic stresses, including drought/osmotic and salt stress. The results provided important information for further identifications of the functions of wheat ASR genes and candidate genes for high abiotic stress tolerant wheat breeding.

中文翻译：

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小麦（Triticum aestivum L.）脱落酸、胁迫和成熟诱导（ASR）基因家族的全基因组特征。

背景技术脱落酸、胁迫和成熟诱导(ASR)基因是一类植物特异性转录因子(TF)，在植物发育、生长和非生物胁迫反应中发挥重要作用。小麦 ASR 尚未在全基因组范围内得到描述。方法我们分别使用 TMHMM 服务器、Plant-mPLoc 服务器和 CELLO v2.5 预测跨膜区域和亚细胞定位。然后用MEGA7构建系统发育树。分别通过GSDS、MEME程序和PlantRegMap分析外显子-内含子结构、保守基序和TF结合位点。结果通过全基因组调查，在小麦中鉴定出 33 个 ASR 基因，并将其分为六组。系统发育分析表明，与其他物种的 TaASR 蛋白相比，同一组中的 TaASR 蛋白紧密聚集在一起。重复分析表明TaASR基因家族主要通过串联和分段重复事件进行扩展。在同一组中，小麦中的 TaASR 具有相似的基因结构和保守的蛋白质基序。ASR 基因包含与启动子区域应激反应相关的各种 TF 结合位点。基因表达通常与五种组织（包括籽粒、叶、根、穗和茎）中预期的群体特异性表达模式相关，表明 ASR 基因功能在小麦进化过程中广泛保守。qRT-PCR 分析显示，一些 ASR 在 NaCl 和 PEG 胁迫下上调。结论我们鉴定了小麦中的ASR基因，并发现基因复制事件是小麦ASR基因进化的主要驱动力。小麦 ASR 基因的表达受到多种非生物胁迫的调节，包括干旱/渗透和盐胁迫。研究结果为进一步鉴定小麦ASR基因的功能和高非生物胁迫耐受小麦育种候选基因提供了重要信息。