Exploring Sorghum bicolor’s MYB Gene Family: Unveiling the Secrets of SbMYBAS1 in Tackling Salt Stress

  • SorghumBase Team
  • 11 March 2024

In this study, the researchers investigated the impact of salt stress on plant growth and development, focusing on the role of MYB transcription factors (TFs), particularly in Sorghum bicolor (L.) Moench. They identified 210 MYB genes in sorghum, distributed across ten chromosomes and divided into six subfamilies. The study focused on SbMYBAS1 (SbMYB119), which exhibited decreased expression under salt stress conditions.

Further experiments revealed that SbMYBAS1 is located in the nucleus, and overexpression in Arabidopsis plants led to reduced growth, chlorophyll content, and increased membrane permeability, malondialdehyde (MDA) level, and Na+/K+ ratio under salt stress. 

Yeast two-hybrid screening identified potential interactions between SbMYBAS1 and proteins encoded by  three potential SbMYBAS1 interacting genes (SORBI_3002G184600, SORBI_3009G247900, and SORBI_3004G59600). SORBI_3002G184600 encodes trehalose-phosphate phosphatase 6, related to sugar signal transduction; SORBI_3009G247900 encodes the late embryogenesis abundant protein Lea14-A, related to oxidative stress, and osmotic stress; whereas SORBI_3004G059600 is uncharacterized, and its Arabidopsis homolog At5G21050 encodes DNAse I-like superfamily protein that might be related to the regulation of inorganic phosphate in root response to salt stress. 

The study provided insights into the response mechanism of the sorghum MYB gene family to salt stress, emphasizing the importance of MYB TFs in regulating plant responses to environmental challenges. The findings contribute to the understanding of salt tolerance in plants and suggest potential avenues for improving salt tolerance in sorghum plants, with potential implications for enhancing crop yields under stressful conditions.

SorghumBase examples: 

SyMBYAS1 interacting gene SORBI_3009G247900 that encodes the late embryogenesis abundant protein Lea14-A was used to explore SorghumBase below. 

Figure 1: The location of the SORBI_3009G247900 (Sb09g029860, Sobic.009G247900) similar to putative late embryogenesis abundant protein is displayed in SorghumBase.
Figure 2: This figure displays the phylogram of SORBI_3009G247900 (Sb09g029860, Sobic.009G247900) similar to putative late embryogenesis abundant protein, based on the Ensembl compara gene tree. There are 5 paralogs and 39 orthologs of this gene.
Figure 3: This figure displays the electronic fluorescent pictographic images for visualizing gene expression of SORBI_3009G247900 (Sb09g029860, Sobic.009G247900) similar to putative late embryogenesis abundant protein, in different time points at different developmental stages. eFP browser was used to explore the anatomograms of the experimental samples used to generate the gene expression data set.
Figure 4: This figure displays the baseline gene expression of SORBI_3009G247900 (Sb09g029860, Sobic.009G247900) similar to putative late embryogenesis abundant protein in in 5 sorghum BTx623 datasets ( Makita et al. 2015; Davidson et al. 2012; Turco et al. 2017; Olson et al. 2014; Thurber et al 2015; Wang et al. 2018) curated and processed by EMBL-EBI atlas in collaboration with Gramene team.
Figure 5: This figure displays the baseline gene expression of the SORBI_3009G247900 (Sb09g029860, Sobic.009G247900) along with its 4 paralogs in different tissues.

 

Reference:

Lu M, Chen Z, Dang Y, Li J, Wang J, Zheng H, Li S, Wang X, Du X, Sui N. Identification of the MYB gene family in Sorghum bicolor and functional analysis of SbMYBAS1 in response to salt stress. Plant Mol Biol. 2023 Nov;113(4-5):249-264. PMID: 37964053. doi:10.1007/s11103-023-01386-w. Read more.