ANALYSIS OF THE CONSERVED STRUCTURE OF NUCLEAR FACTOR-YA SUBUNIT IN LEGUMES

Abstract

Legumes are known to play an important role in sustainable agriculture production. Until now, the stress response mechanisms related to the involvement of transcription factor Nuclear factor-Y (NF-Y) of these plant species have been still not clearly understood. In this study, NF-YA subunits have been analyzed in 6 legumes species, including soybean (Glycine max), chickpea (Cicer arietinum), common bean (Phaseolus vulgaris), barrel clover (Medicago truncatula). peanut (Arachis hypogaea) and mung bean (Vigna radiata). As a result, a total of 7 and 8 genes encoding NF-YA has been identified in peanut and mung bean, respectively. Based on the previous data, we confirmed that the NF-YA gene family in Legumes is a multiple family with the various members. NF-YA genes in Legumes contained from 4 to 7 exons, with the majority was formed by 5 exons and 4 introns. Next, the lengths of most of the NF-YAs in legumes are more than 300 amino acids and basic. Our phylogeny analysis showed that the function of NF-YA genes in the branch i of subgroup 1a.1 and 1b might be related to the nodule development, while the remaining genes in the branch ii of subgroup 1a.1, 1a.2 and 2a could act in the photosynthetic organs, such as stem, seed, leaf and flower. Taken together, our results could provide an important understanding in order to orientate the further functional characterization of NF-YA genes.