In silico Identification of Gene Families EncodingCysteine-Rich Peptides in Solanum lycopersicum L.
Cysteine-rich plant peptides (CRP) play a key role in protection of plants from pathogens, abiotic stress, symbiosis with bacteria, and in plant development and reproduction. The composition and role of CRP in tomato Solanum lycopersicum, the most important vegetable, has not been studied so far. In this paper, using two approaches – hidden Markov models and regular expressions, in silico identification of tomato CRP families was performed. A bioinformatic research in NCBI databases revealed 191 CRP precursors. The peptides found belong to the families of antimicrobial and signaling peptides. Among the antimicrobial peptides,defensins and defensin-like peptides, nonspecific lipid-transfer proteins, thionins, snakins, hevein- and knottin-like peptides were found. Among signaling peptides, the peptides belonging to the RALF, Ole e 1, Ole e 6 and MEG families were discovered. In addition, peptides with new cysteine motifs were identified. All discovered CRPs are synthesized as pre- or preproproteins. The predicted mature peptides were characterized by cysteine motifs, antimicrobial activity and domain structure. Thus, for the first time using bioinformatic approaches, systemic data on the arsenal of CRP in the tomato genome were obtained, which creates a basis for further functional studies of these peptides and their subsequent use in agriculture to develop new strategies of increasing pathogen resistance in tomato, as well as in medicine to create next-generation drugs.