title: A comprehensive, genome-wide analysis of autophagy-related genes identified in tobacco suggests a central role of autophagy in plant response to various environmental cues.
abstract: Autophagy is an evolutionarily conserved mechanism in both animals and plants, which has been shown to be involved in various essential developmental processes in plants. Nicotiana tabacum is considered to be an ideal model plant and has been widely used for the study of the roles of autophagy in the processes of plant development and in the response to various stresses. However, only a few autophagy-related genes (ATGs) have been identified in tobacco up to now. Here, we identified 30 ATGs belonging to 16 different groups in tobacco through a genome-wide survey. Comprehensive expression profile analysis reveals an abroad expression pattern of these ATGs, which could be detected in all tissues tested under normal growth conditions. Our series tests further reveal that majority of ATGs are sensitive and responsive to different stresses including nutrient starvation, plant hormones, heavy metal and other abiotic stresses, suggesting a central role of autophagy, likely as an effector, in plant response to various environmental cues. This work offers a detailed survey of all ATGs in tobacco and also suggests manifold functions of autophagy in both normal plant growth and plant response to environmental stresses.
authors.affiliation: Department of Cell and Developmental Biology, College of Life Sciences, State Key Laboratory of Hybrid Rice, Wuhan University, Wuhan 430072, China.
authors.forename: Xue-mei
authors.initials: XM
authors.lastname: Zhou
authors.affiliation: Department of Cell and Developmental Biology, College of Life Sciences, State Key Laboratory of Hybrid Rice, Wuhan University, Wuhan 430072, China.
authors.forename: Peng
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Zhao
authors.affiliation: Department of Cell and Developmental Biology, College of Life Sciences, State Key Laboratory of Hybrid Rice, Wuhan University, Wuhan 430072, China.
authors.forename: Wei
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.affiliation: Molecular Genetics Key Laboratory of China Tobacco, Guizhou Academy of Tobacco Science, Guiyang 550081, China.
authors.forename: Jie
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Zou
authors.affiliation: Department of Cell and Developmental Biology, College of Life Sciences, State Key Laboratory of Hybrid Rice, Wuhan University, Wuhan 430072, China.
authors.forename: Tian-he
authors.initials: TH
authors.lastname: Cheng
authors.affiliation: Department of Cell and Developmental Biology, College of Life Sciences, State Key Laboratory of Hybrid Rice, Wuhan University, Wuhan 430072, China.
authors.forename: Xiong-bo
authors.initials: XB
authors.lastname: Peng
authors.affiliation: Department of Cell and Developmental Biology, College of Life Sciences, State Key Laboratory of Hybrid Rice, Wuhan University, Wuhan 430072, China mxsun@whu.edu.cn.
authors.forename: Meng-xiang
authors.initials: MX
authors.lastname: Sun
mesh_terms: D001343:Autophagy / Q000235:genetics*; D002244:Carbon / Q000378:metabolism; D016000:Cluster Analysis; D020869:Gene Expression Profiling; D018506:Gene Expression Regulation, Plant / Q000187:drug effects; D023061:Gene Order; D059647:Gene-Environment Interaction; D019216:Metals, Heavy / Q000378:metabolism; D009584:Nitrogen / Q000378:metabolism; D010802:Phylogeny; D010937:Plant Growth Regulators / Q000494:pharmacology; D013312:Stress, Physiological / Q000235:genetics; D014026:Nicotiana / Q000235:genetics* / Q000378:metabolism
chemical_list: D019216:Metals, Heavy; D010937:Plant Growth Regulators; D002244:Carbon; D009584:Nitrogen
keywords: autophagy; environmental stresses; gene expression; signalling; tobacco