Abstract

Dendrobium catenatum, which grows on the semi humid rocks in the mountains, has been at the top of the ‘Nine Immortals of China’ since ancient times. It is a kind of yin tonic medicine and its main active component is polysaccharide. Cellulose synthase-like D(CslD) genes were predicted to catalyse the biosynthesis of 1,4-β-d-glycan backbone of hemicelluloses, which plays fundamental roles in plant development. To investigate the role of CslD in the development of D. catenatum, eight CslD genes (DcCslD1,2a,2b,3a,3b,4a,4b,5) were identified. The results of protein prediction and analysis showed that CslD2a/2b/4a/4b proteins were acidic proteins. All the proteins had obvious hydrophobic or hydrophilic regions, and had transmembrane structure. Phylogenetic analysis revealed that the DcCslD family could be divided into group I, II, III and IV. DcCslD proteins had a typical Cellulose synthase domain and similar protein structures to the CslDs of other plants. Their promoter regions contain cis regulatory elements related to stress and hormone response. The results of qRT-PCR showed that the identified DcCslDs were differentially expressed in roots, stems and leaves. Most of them were highly expressed in stems and leaves. The environmental stresses examination showed that the expression levels of DcCslD5 were closely associated with drought-recovery treatment; the expression levels of DcCslD1, DcCslD2a, DcCslD2b, DcCslD3a and DcCslD5 were significantly influenced by low temperature. This study systematically analyzed the sequence characteristics of CslD protein of D. catenatum, which can provide reference for further study on the function of CslD protein in the polysaccharide metabolism of D. catenatum.

Supplemental data for this article is available online at https://doi.org/10.1080/13102818.2021.1941252 .