Isolation, characterization and expression analysis of stress responsive plant nuclear transcriptional factor subunit () from commercial hybrid and wild relative .

Plant nuclear factor () is a transcription activating factor, consisting of three subunits, and plays a key regulatory role in many stress-responsive mechanisms including drought and salinity stresses. NF-Ys function both as complex and individual subunits. Considering the importance of sugarcane as a commercial crop with high socio-economic importance and the crop being affected mostly by water deficit stress and salinity stress causing significant yield loss, nuclear transcriptional factor was focused in this study. Plant nuclear factor subunit B2 from (), a wild relative of sugarcane which is known for its drought and salinity stress tolerance, and commercial hybrid Co 86032 () was isolated and characterized Both and genes are 543 bp long that encodes for a polypeptide of 180 amino acid residues. Comparison of and gene sequences revealed nucleotide substitutions at nine positions corresponding to three synonymous and six nonsynonymous amino acid substitutions that resulted in variations in physiochemical properties. However, multiple sequence alignment (MSA) of NF-YB2 proteins showed conservation of functionally important amino acid residues. In silico analysis revealed NF-YB2 to be a hydrophilic and intracellular protein, and EaNF-YB2 is thermally more stable than that of ShNF-YB2. Phylogenetic analysis suggested the lower rate of evolution of . Subcellular localization in sugarcane callus revealed NF-YB2 localization at nucleus that further evidenced it to be a transcription activation factor. Comparative RT-qPCR experiments showed a significantly higher level of expression in when compared to that in the commercial hybrid Co 86032 under drought and salinity stresses. Hence, could be an ideal candidate gene, and its overexpression in sugarcane through genetic engineering approach might enhance tolerance to drought and salinity stresses.