AUTHOR=Bano Nasreen , Fakhrah Shafquat , Lone Rayees Ahmad , Mohanty Chandra Sekhar , Bag Sumit Kumar 

TITLE=Genome-wide identification and expression analysis of the HD2 protein family and its response to drought and salt stress in Gossypium species

JOURNAL=Frontiers in Plant Science

VOLUME=14

YEAR=2023

URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/plant-science/articles/10.3389/fpls.2023.1109031

DOI=10.3389/fpls.2023.1109031

ISSN=1664-462X

ABSTRACT=<p>Histone deacetylase 2 (HD2) proteins play an important role in the regulation of gene expression. This helps with the growth and development of plants and also plays a crucial role in responses to biotic and abiotic stress es. HD2s comprise a C<sub>2</sub>H<sub>2</sub>-type Zn<sup>2+</sup> finger at their C-terminal and an HD2 label, deacetylation and phosphorylation sites, and NLS motifs at their N-terminal. In this study, a total of 27 HD2 members were identified, using Hidden Markov model profiles, in two diploid cotton genomes (<italic>Gossypium raimondii</italic> and <italic>Gossypium arboretum</italic>) and two tetraploid cotton genomes (<italic>Gossypium hirsutum</italic> and <italic>Gossypium barbadense</italic>). These cotton HD2 members were classified into 10 major phylogenetic groups (I-X), of which group III was found to be the largest with 13 cotton HD2 members. An evolutionary investigation showed that the expansion of HD2 members primarily occurred as a result of segmental duplication in paralogous gene pairs. Further qRT-PCR validation of nine putative genes using RNA-Seq data suggested that GhHDT3D.2 exhibits significantly higher levels of expression at 12h, 24h, 48h, and 72h of exposure to both drought and salt stress conditions compared to a control measure at 0h. Furthermore, gene ontology, pathways, and co-expression network study of GhHDT3D.2 gene affirmed their significance in drought and salt stress responses.</p>