Genome-Wide Identification and Analysis of the Valine-Glutamine Motif-Containing Gene Family in and Functional Characterization of in Response to .

Proteins containing valine-glutamine (VQ) motifs play important roles in plant growth and development as well as in defense responses to both abiotic and biotic stresses. Blackleg disease, which is caused by , is the most important disease in canola () worldwide; however, the identification of VQs and their functions in response to blackleg disease have not yet been reported. In this study, we conducted a genome-wide identification and characterization of the gene family in , including chromosome location, phylogenetic relations, gene structure, motif domain, synteny analysis, and -elements categorization of their promoter regions. To understand gene function in response to blackleg disease, we overexpressed (BnaA01g36880D, also known as the mitogen-activated protein kinase 4 substrate 1 [] gene) in a blackleg-susceptible canola variety, Westar. Overexpression of in canola did not improve its resistance to blackleg disease at the seedling stage; however, transgenic canola plants overexpressing displayed an enhanced resistance to infection at the adult plant stage. Expression levels of downstream and defense marker genes in cotyledons increased significantly at the necrotrophic stage of infection in the overexpression line of , suggesting that the salicylic acid- and jasmonic acid-mediated signaling pathways were both involved in the defense responses. Together, these results suggest that might play an important role in defense against .[Formula: see text] Copyright © 2021 The Author(s). This is an open access article distributed under the CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 International license.