Sonkar Kamankshi, Kamali Saravanappriyan, Kumar Atul, Deepika Deepika, Ankit Ankit, Singh Amarjeet
BRIC- National Institute of Plant Genome Research, New Delhi 110067, India.
Comput Struct Biotechnol J. 2025 Aug 29;27:3824-3836. doi: 10.1016/j.csbj.2025.08.032. eCollection 2025.
The calmodulin-binding transcriptional activator (CAMTA) transcription factors regulate the expression of target genes in Ca dependent cellular functions. CAMTAs are known to regulate biotic and abiotic stress tolerance, and development in plants. CAMTA family has been characterized in Arabidopsis, it is yet to be explored in the legume plant chickpea. Here, we have identified and characterized the chickpea CAMTA family. Total seven genes () were identified in chickpea. Gene and domain structure analyses suggested that CAMTAs are structurally conserved. The phylogenetic analysis demarcated CaCAMTAs into three groups namely; group I, II and III, and indicated that CaCAMTAs have co-evolved in dicot leguminous plants whereas, they have divergent evolution in monocots. Protein homology modeling revealed their three-dimensional structure, and composition & conformations of α-helix, β-sheets and p-loops. Subcellular localization showed that CaCAMTA4 was localized both, in the nucleus and the cytosol whereas, CaCAMTA5 was localized in the nucleus. CaCAMTA promoters contain various -regulatory elements related to abiotic stresses and plant development. Expression profiling using RNA-seq data revealed differential expression of CaCAMTAs during various stages of plant development. RT-qPCR expression analysis showed that most genes are drought, salt, and ABA responsive, suggesting their role in abiotic stress tolerance in chickpea. Moreover, CaCAMTA regulon was identified based on the presence of CAMTA binding motif (CGCG box) in the promoters of target genes, and interaction analysis of TF and putative targets. Overall, CaCAMTAs are crucial for abiotic stress tolerance and plant development in chickpea. Key genes will be functionally characterized, and will be exploited for developing stress tolerant chickpea varieties.
钙调蛋白结合转录激活因子（CAMTA）转录因子在钙依赖的细胞功能中调节靶基因的表达。已知CAMTAs可调节植物的生物和非生物胁迫耐受性以及发育。CAMTA家族已在拟南芥中得到表征，但在豆科植物鹰嘴豆中尚未进行探索。在此，我们鉴定并表征了鹰嘴豆CAMTA家族。在鹰嘴豆中总共鉴定出七个基因（）。基因和结构域结构分析表明，CAMTAs在结构上是保守的。系统发育分析将CaCAMTAs分为三组，即第一组、第二组和第三组，并表明CaCAMTAs在双子叶豆科植物中共同进化，而在单子叶植物中则有不同的进化。蛋白质同源性建模揭示了它们的三维结构以及α螺旋、β折叠和p环的组成与构象。亚细胞定位表明，CaCAMTA4定位于细胞核和细胞质中，而CaCAMTA5定位于细胞核中。CaCAMTA启动子包含与非生物胁迫和植物发育相关的各种调控元件。使用RNA-seq数据进行的表达谱分析揭示了CaCAMTAs在植物发育的各个阶段的差异表达。RT-qPCR表达分析表明，大多数基因对干旱、盐和脱落酸有响应，表明它们在鹰嘴豆非生物胁迫耐受性中的作用。此外，基于靶基因启动子中CAMTA结合基序（CGCG框）的存在以及转录因子与推定靶标的相互作用分析，鉴定了CaCAMTA调控子。总体而言，CaCAMTAs对鹰嘴豆的非生物胁迫耐受性和植物发育至关重要。关键基因将进行功能表征，并将用于培育耐胁迫的鹰嘴豆品种。
