DefinePK

Abstract

Background and Objective Vacuole-type NHX proteins are important for plants ability to tolerate abiotic stress, especially salt stress. Materials and Methods To gain information about the mechanisms of molecular regulation of NHX genes under abiotic stresses in canola Brassica napus L., in silico method was used to identify cis-acting regulatory elements present in 2.5 kbp upstream regions of identified vacuole-type NHX genes from the canola genome BnNHXs. Results A total of 51 cis-acting regulatory elements were identified that showed remarkable differences in frequency and site-specific distribution and they fell into five groups Light-responsive elements, stress response, hormonal regulation, cellular development and elements with unknown function. The site-specific distribution of stress response and hormonal regulation elements indicated that they were most dense at -1600 to -1800 bp and at -800 bp, that is, far from the transcription start site. The most common motifs were the G-Box and Box 4 cis-elements, followed by the MBS, HSE and ARE motifs from the stress response group and the GARE-motif and ABRE from the hormonal regulation group. The results indicated that regulation of expression of BnNHXs under abiotic stresses involves TC-rich repeats, heat shock elements HSE, LTR, anaerobic responsive element ARE, Box-W1, MBS, CCAAT-box, ABA-responsive elements ABRE, CGTCA-motif, TGACG-motif and ERE. Conclusion This study provided information on the mechanisms by which BnNHX genes are regulated under abiotic stresses in canola.