Utilization of a Bioinformatics approach in the classification of transcription-associated protein repertoires showcasing genome-wide transcriptional & functional diversity in three economically important oil crops (sesame, sunflower & olive)

Maryam Mehmood¹, Muhammad Huzaifa Jamil², Muhammad Zulfiqar Husnain²

Abstract

The systematic identification and classification of complete sets of transcription-associated proteins (TAPs), which include transcription factors (TFs) and transcription regulators (TRs) have immense significance in plants. TAPs are valuable biomolecules for carrying out interesting comparative studies based on evolution and functional analysis in plants. A Multitude of TFs and TRs are known to play key roles in various environmental stress responses and oil biosynthesis. It is essential to identify and classify TAPs found in economically important oil-crops. In this study, putatively complete sets of TFs and TRs in three economically important oil crops i.e., sesame, sunflower and olive were identified and classified based on homology searching and domain architecture prediction. TF/TR repertoires comprising 1,586 TFs (39 TF families), 117 TRs (8 TR families) in sesame, 1,479 TFs (38 TF families), 83 TRs (8 TR families) in sunflower and 2,830 TFs (38 TF families), 133 TRs (8 TR families) in olive were identified. The results of this study demonstrate that olive is more transcriptionally diverse in terms of numbers and types of TF/TR families than sesame and sunflower, suggesting more evolutionary, transcriptional and functional diversity in olive. Thus, this study provides useful information to the research community to decipher evolution, function, phylogenetic comparison studies and complex regulator networks involving growth, development or stress responses in plants, particularly oil-crops.