ATP-Binding Cassette Expression Profilling Revealed its Role in Development and Regulating Stress Response in Potato (Solanum Tuberosum)

Abstract The ATP-binding cassette (ABC) transporter gene family play vital role in substance transportation including heavy metals ion, secondary metabolites and phytohormone across membranous structure. Despite its essential role in crops, still uncovered in potato (Solanum tuberosum L), grown world widely as a 3rd important food crop. Current study identified a total of 54 ABC transporter genes (StABC) in potato genome. The accumulative phylogenetic tree of StABC with Arabidopsis, divided into 8 groups (ABCA to ABCH). Among these, ABCG was the largest family covering 90% of StABC genes followed by ABCB group. The number and architecture of exon-intron varied from gene to gene. However, the sequence alignment and motif analysis demonstrated similar functional and structural sites and motif in all StABC. The syntenic blocks presented segmental duplication among intra and inter genomes. In addition, the presence of stress responsive element in the regulatory regions depicted their role in environmental adaptation. Furthermore, the tissues-specific and stress-specific expression profiling of StABC genes and their validation through Real-Time-qPCR (RT-qPCR ) analysis revealed their role in development and stress. The presented results provided useful information for further functional analysis of StABC and can also use as reference study for other important crops.