and gene family in barley: Identification, characterization and expression analyses.

Calmodulin (CaM) and calmodulin-like (CML) proteins are Ca relays and play diverse and multiple roles in plant growth, development and stress responses. However, gene family has not been identified in barley (). In the present study, 5 and 80 were identified through a genome-wide analysis. All HvCaM proteins possessed 4 EF-hand motifs, whereas HvCMLs contained 1 to 4 EF-hand motifs. , and coded the same polypeptide although they differed in nucleotide sequence, which was identical to the polypeptides coded by , and . were unevenly distributed over barley 7 chromosomes, and could be phylogenetically classified into 8 groups. differed in gene structure, -acting elements and tissue expression patterns. Segmental and tandem duplication were observed among during evolution. , , and were dispensable genes and the others were core genes in barley pan-genome. In addition, 14 genes were selected to examine their responses to salt, osmotic and low potassium stresses by qRT-PCR, and their expression were stress-and time-dependent. These results facilitate our understanding and further functional identification of .