Characterization of drought stress responsive gene(s) in Vigna radiata under bacterial strain inoculation and drought stress treatment

Abstract

Vigna radiata commonly called as, mung bean is a legume kharif crop cultivated in Asia. Several abiotic stresses affect mung bean yield and quality of mung bean. Carotenoid cleavage dioxygenases (CCDs), catalyze cleavage of carotenoids are important in responses to abiotic stress. The amount of information on mung bean CCDs and their functions in abiotic stress is still not sufficient. In this study, 9 CCDs genes identified in Vigna radiata were allocated into 3 groups. The members in same group had same motif features and intron-exon organization. Gene ontology showed that these genes are distributed in cytoplasm and other membrane bounded organelles like chloroplast and plastids and has a role in cleavage of carotenoid cleavage. In addition, the expression analysis of NCED gene showed upregulation of NCED gene under drought stress and enhanced expression of NCED was observed under bacterial strain inoculation and drought stress in both varieties of mung bean (MSPS-119 and NCM-13). Expression analysis results showed that MSPS-119 was the variety which showed higher NCED expression under all treatment than NCM-13, indicating MSPS-119 as more drought tolerant than NCM-13. Results provided information about functions and expression of NCED in mung bean under drought stress and showed potential of these genes to make stress tolerant varieties.