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Keywords: Transcription factor, Domain, Phylogenetic relation, Interaction, Promoter, Expression analysis
Signal Transducers and Activators of Transcription (STATs) are transcription factors which are involved in JAK/STAT phosphorelay signaling in animals. Although STATs are well characterized in metazoans including humans, their role in plants is not well understood. To fill this gap, a bioinformatics analysis of STAT family was carried out in rice. A single STAT-like member OsSTATL was identified. Interestingly, in silico promoter analysis showed a possible regulation of OsSTATL in response to abiotic as well as biotic stresses. Analysis of publically available rice transcriptome data revealed upregulation of expression of OsSTATL gene under drought, salinity and phosphorus deficiency. qRT-PCR based expression analysis showed its heat inducibility in IR64 rice seedlings at an early duration. Moreover, important rice diseases (caused by planthopper and bacterial pathovar) also induce its expression. Protein–protein interaction analysis indicated its interactions with a receptor-like kinase, a transcriptional regulator and chromatin remodeling proteins. OsSTATL protein was found to contain the SH2 (Src homology 2) domain which is responsible for mediating protein–protein interactions. OsSTATL shared sequence similarities with its homologs from monocot lineage. Taken together, this is the first study indicating involvement of OsSTATL in stress response that needs further experimental investigations to understand the regulatory function mediated by OsSTATL under stress conditions.
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Department of Botany, University of Rajasthan, Jaipur, India