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RESEARCH ARTICLE

Genome-wide identification of AP2/ERF transcription factors in mungbean (Vigna radiata) and expression profiling of the VrDREB subfamily under drought stress

Abdullahi Muhammad Labbo A , Maryam Mehmood A , Malik Nadeem Akhtar A , Muhammad Jawad Khan A , Aamira Tariq A and Irfan Sadiq https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9595-0409 A B
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A Department of Biosciences, COMSATS University Islamabad, Park Road, Islamabad, Pakistan.

B Corresponding author. Email: irfan_sadiq@comsats.edu.pk

Crop and Pasture Science 69(10) 1009-1019 https://doi.org/10.1071/CP18180
Submitted: 29 April 2018  Accepted: 01 August 2018   Published: 27 August 2018

Abstract

Mungbean (Vigna radiata L.) is a valuable legume crop grown in tropical and subtropical areas of Asia. Drought is one of the major factors hindering its growth globally. APETALA2/ethylene-responsive element factor binding proteins (AP2/ERF) are an important family of plant-specific transcription factors (TFs) involved in drought-stress tolerance. We identified 71 AP2/ERF TFs in the mungbean genome by using bioinformatics tools and classified them into subfamilies: AP2 (16 members), ERF (22), RAV (2), DREB (30) and soloist (other proteins with no domain, 1). Members of DREB play a critical role in drought-stress tolerance. Ten-day-old mungbean plants cv. AZRI-06 were exposed to drought stress by complete withholding of water for 7 days. Root samples were collected from control and drought-stressed plants, and the expression pattern of 30 identified VrDREB genes was determined by qPCR. Most VrDREB genes exhibited differential expression in response to drought. Five genes (VrDREB5, VrDREB12, VrDREB13, VrDREB22, VrDREB30) were highly expressed under drought stress and might be considered excellent candidates for further functional analysis and for improvement of mungbean drought tolerance.

Additional keywords: abiotic stress, desiccation, Vigna spp.


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