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Genome-Wide Identification of SWEET Gene Family and Its Response to Abiotic Stresses in Valencia Sweet Orange

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A Correction to this article was published on 13 November 2021

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Abstract

The sugars-will-eventually-be-exported-transporters (SWEET) family is a newly characterized group of sugar transporters, which plays an important role in diverse biological processes, including plant growth, development, and response to abiotic and biotic stresses. SWEET family genes, known as SWEETs, have been characterized in many plant species, but a comprehensive analysis has not been performed on citrus. Here, 27 citrus SWEET genes (CitSWEETs) were identified through homology searches. The phylogenetic relationship, transmembrane helices (TMHs), gene distribution, and gene structure were then investigated. Furthermore, the expression patterns of 27 CitSWEETs were examined in several tissues and under different abiotic stresses. The data revealed that CitSWEET1, CitSWEET2, CitSWEET3, CitSWEET4, CitSWEET7, CitSWEET25, and CitSWEET27 were tissue-specific, and others were ubiquitously expressed. Among 27 genes tested, some members were sensitive to abiotic stress or hormone stimuli, and CitSWEET3 transported glucose in EMY4000 yeast strain. In conclusion, we performed the first comprehensive analysis of the CitSWEET gene family in citrus, which can provide useful information to further analyze their potential roles.

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Acknowledgments

We thank LetPub (www.letpub.com) for its linguistic assistance during the preparation of this manuscript.

Funding

This work was supported by Key Research and Development Project of Huanglong disease (2018YFD0201500).

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Tingshan Yao was in charge of the experimental design. Rangjin Xie was in charge of data analysis. Yan Zhou was in charge of the operation of the instrument. Junhua Hu was in charge of data analysis. Yue Gao was in charge of drawing. Changyong Zhou was responsible for supervising the project.

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Correspondence to Changyong Zhou.

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Key message

Genome-wide identification of the citrus SWEET genes and their transcription profiles under abiotic stresses

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Yao, T., Xie, R., Zhou, Y. et al. Genome-Wide Identification of SWEET Gene Family and Its Response to Abiotic Stresses in Valencia Sweet Orange. Plant Mol Biol Rep 39, 546–556 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11105-020-01268-1

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