Genome-wide Bioinformatic and Functional Analysis of Receptor-like Proteins in Cotton

Abstract

Cotton (Gossypium. Spp.) is an agroeconomically significant crop worldwide involved in textile, oil, and feedstock production. Identifying genetic targets involved with disease resistance in cotton remains a critical objective for the scientific community. There remains much to be elucidated about how plant cells communicate and recognize biotic and abiotic environmental cues. Cell-surface-associated pattern recognition receptors (PRR) play a critical role in pathogen recognition. In plants, PRRs are receptor-like kinases (RLKs) and receptor-like proteins (RLPs). In particular, leucine-rich repeat containing RLPs (LRR-RLPs) have been indicated to play an important role in disease resistance against Fusarium infection in Arabidopsis. My thesis research is to genome-wide identify cotton RLPs with a bioinformatics approach and characterize their potential involvement in cotton disease resistance using virus-induced gene silencing (VIGS) approach. The 57 Arabidopsis RLPs were used to identify the cotton RLPs via sequence homology. Analysis of the cotton genome has identified 86 LRR-RLPs in G arboreum, 107 LRR-RLPs in G raimondii, and 151 LRR-RLPs in G. hirsutum. Phylogenic tree analysis with other plant LRR-RLPs suggested that cotton LRR-RLPs are likely evolved independently and clustered together. LRR-RLPs appear to be evolved rapidly as the homology between cotton and Arabidopsis LRR-RLPs is often below 40%. The number of LRRs varies among different LRR-RLP members. Using the VIGS approach, we silenced a set of cotton RLPs. My preliminary assays suggested that GhRLPGSO1-like, GhRLP44, GhRLP6, and GhRLP34 might be required for defense against Fusarium oxysporum. Additional infection assays and evaluation of silencing efficiency will further evaluate their involvement in disease resistance.