Genome-Wide Analyses of Thaumatin-like Protein Family Genes Reveal the Involvement in the Response to Low-Temperature Stress in .

Thaumatin-like proteins (TLPs), a family of proteins with high sequence similarity to thaumatin, are shown to be involved in plant defense, and are thus classified into the pathogenesis related protein family 5. is a rare evergreen broad-leaved shrub distributed in the temperate zone of Central Asia, which has a high tolerance to low-temperature stress. To characterize TLPs and understand their roles in low-temperature response in , a comprehensive analysis of the structure, evolution, and expression of TLP family proteins was performed. A total of 31 genes were detected in the genome, and they were divided into four groups based on their phylogenetic positions. The majority of the AnTLPs contained the conserved cysteine residues and were predicted to have the typical three-dimensional structure of plant TLPs. The primary modes of gene duplication of the AnTLP family genes were segmental duplication. The promoter regions of most genes contain multiple cis-acting elements related to environmental stress response. Gene expression analysis based on transcriptome data and fluorescence quantitative PCR analysis revealed that several genes were involved in cold-stress response. We further showed that a cold-induced gene, , was localized in apoplast, and heterologous expression of the in and yeast cells and tobacco leaves enhanced low-temperature stress tolerance when compared with the control cells or seedlings. Our study provided important data for understanding the roles of TLPs in plant response to abiotic stress.