Genome-Wide Identification of the Gene Family and Its Involvement in Salt Stress Response through Interaction with NsVP1 in Pall.

14-3-3 proteins are widely distributed in eukaryotic cells and play an important role in plant growth, development, and stress tolerance. This study revealed nine genes from the genome of Pall., a halophyte with strong salt tolerance. The physicochemical properties, multiple sequence alignment, gene structure and motif analysis, and chromosomal distributions were analyzed, and phylogenetic analysis, cis-regulatory elements analysis, and gene transcription and expression analysis of were conducted. The results revealed that the gene family consists of nine members, which are divided into two groups: ε (four members) and non-ε (five members). These members are acidic hydrophilic proteins. The genes are distributed randomly on chromosomes, and the number of introns varies widely among the two groups. However, all genes have similar conserved domains and three-dimensional protein structures. The main differences are found at the N-terminus and C-terminus. The promoter region of contains multiple cis-acting elements related to light, plant hormones, and abiotic stress responses. Transcriptional profiling and gene expression pattern analysis revealed that were expressed in all tissues, although with varying patterns. Under salt stress conditions, , , , and showed significant changes in gene expression. expression decreased in all tissues, expression decreased by 60% to 71% in roots, and expression increased by 209% to 251% in stems. The most significant change was observed in , with its expression in stems increasing by 213% to 681%. The yeast two-hybrid experiments demonstrated that Ns14-3-3 5a interacts with NsVP1 (vacuolar H-pyrophosphatase). This result indicates that Ns14-3-3 5a may respond to salt stress by promoting ionic vacuole compartmentalization in stems and leaves through interactions with NsVP1. In addition, has a high number of stems, allowing it to compartmentalize more ions through its stem and leaf. This may be a contributing factor to its superior salt tolerance compared to other plants.