title: Expression of ZAT12 transcripts in transgenic tomato under various abiotic stresses and modeling of ZAT12 protein in silico.
abstract: ZAT12 a C2H2-zinc-finger protein is an abiotic stress-responsive transcription factor in plants having less information about their structure. Transcription analysis proved that ZAT12 transcripts over-expressed during drought, heat and salt stress conditions which led to an interest in 3-D structural studies of ZAT12in Brassica carinata. Over-expression of BcZAT12 in transformed tomato plants under abiotic stresses, suggest role of ZAT12 in conferring stress-tolerance in tomato. Sequence analysis of ZAT12 protein (Accession No. ABB55254.1) from B. carinata revealed it as a 161 amino acid long protein with short conserved motif (140)LDLXL(144) in C-terminal, a leucine rich L-Box with-(14)EXXAXCLXXL(23) motif in N-terminal region and presence of two conserved Zinc-Finger motifs "CXXCXXXXXXXQALGGHXXXH" between positions 42-62 and 85-105. The two zinc finger motifs have presence of two conserved glutamic acid (Glu) and phenylalanine (Phe) residues. Two methionine (Met) residues at position 94 and 102 present in ZF-motif-2 were absent in ZF-motif-1. The (94)Met and (97)Ala in ZF-motif-2 were found to be replaced by serine (Ser) in ZF-motif-1. Homology and ab initio structural modeling of ZAT12 encoded BcZAT12 protein of B. carinata resulted in robust 3-D models and were evaluated for structural motifs, associated GO terms and protein-DNA interactions. The BcZAT12 protein model, was of good quality, reliable, stable and is deposited in PMDB database (PMDB ID: PM0078213). BcZAT12 is annotated as an intracellular protein having molecular function in Zn-binding which in turn regulates signal transduction/translation processes in response to abiotic stresses in plants. Results suggest BcZAT12 protein to interact directly with one strand of dsDNA via electrostatic and H-bonds.
authors.affiliation: Department of Biochemistry, Faculty of Science, Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi, 221005, UP, India.
authors.forename: Avinash Chandra
authors.initials: AC
authors.lastname: Rai
authors.forename: Indra
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Singh
authors.forename: Major
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Singh
authors.forename: Kavita
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Shah
mesh_terms: D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D001483:Base Sequence; D001937:Brassica / Q000235:genetics*; D018744:DNA, Plant / Q000378:metabolism; D055864:Droughts; D018506:Gene Expression Regulation, Plant; D006358:Hot Temperature; D018551:Solanum lycopersicum / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism*; D008958:Models, Molecular; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D018384:Oxidative Stress; D010940:Plant Proteins / Q000235:genetics* / Q000378:metabolism; D030821:Plants, Genetically Modified; D011485:Protein Binding; D011487:Protein Conformation; D017433:Protein Structure, Secondary; D054712:Salinity; D016415:Sequence Alignment; D017386:Sequence Homology, Amino Acid; D014157:Transcription Factors / Q000235:genetics* / Q000378:metabolism; D014158:Transcription, Genetic; D019076:Transgenes; D016335:Zinc Fingers / Q000235:genetics
chemical_list: D018744:DNA, Plant; D010940:Plant Proteins; D014157:Transcription Factors