Genome-Wide Identification and Expression Profiling of DUF221 Gene Family Provides New Insights Into Abiotic Stress Responses in Potato.

The domain of the unknown function 221 proteins regulate several processes in plants, including development, growth, hormone transduction mechanism, and abiotic stress response. Therefore, a comprehensive analysis of the potato genome was conducted to identify the deafness-dystonia peptide (DDP) proteins' role in potatoes. In the present study, we performed a genome-wide analysis of the potato domain of the unknown function 221 (DUF221) genes, including phylogenetic inferences, chromosomal locations, gene duplications, gene structures, and expression analysis. In our results, we identified 10 genes in the potato genome. The phylogenetic analysis results indicated that genes were distributed in all four clades, and clade IV was the largest clade. The gene duplication under selection pressure analysis indicated various positive and purifying selections in genes. The putative stu-miRNAs from different families targeting were also predicted in the present study. Promoter regions of genes contain different -acting components involved in multiple stress responses, such as phytohormones and abiotic stress-responsive factors. The analysis of the tissue-specific expression profiling indicated the gene expression in stem, root, and leaf tissues. We subsequently observed that , , showed higher expressions in roots, stems, and leaves. exhibited high expression against heat stress response, and showed high transcript abundance against salt stress in potatoes. Under abscisic acid (ABA) and indole acetic acid (IAA) treatments, seven genes' expressions indicated that ABA and IAA performed important roles in immunity response. The expression profiling and real-time qPCR of stems, roots, and leaves revealed significant role in growth and development. These expression results of are primary functional analysis and present basic information for other economically important crops.