Genome-wide identification, evolution, and molecular characterization of the PP2C gene family in woodland strawberry.

The protein phosphatase 2C (PP2C) gene family is one of the momentous and conserved plant-specific gene families, known to participate in cellular processes via reversible protein phosphorylation and regulates signal transduction in eukaryotic organisms. Recently, PP2Cs were identified in Arabidopsis and maize, however, the whole-genome analysis of PP2C in strawberry has not yet been reported. In the current research, we found 62 PP2C-encoding genes in total from the strawberry genome. Further, the phylogenetic analysis categorized FvPP2C genes into twelve subgroups with significant structural conservation based on conserved domain and amino acid sequence. Moreover, we observed a strong signature of purifying selection between the comparison of orthologous gene pairs of strawberry and Arabidopsis. The comparison of RNA-sequence (RNA-seq) data published on various vegetative and reproductive tissues of strawberry plant suggested the significant role of FvPP2C genes in organ development. The qRT-PCR validation of thirty FvPP2C genes indicated their critical tolerance-related role under abiotic stress stimuli in strawberry. Finally, the subcellular localization of FvPP2C51 gene proves that it resides and stimulates its function in the nucleus. Our findings provide an overview of the identification of strawberry FvPP2C gene family and demonstrate their critical role in tissue-specific response and abiotic stress-tolerance, thereby, intimating their significance in the strawberry molecular breeding for the resistant cultivars.