Maosheng Liu^1,2 , Qian Zhou³ , Junjiao Ping² , Zhen Zhang² , Gang Qian²

1. Department of Anatomy, Zunyi Medical College, Zunyi, 563099, P.R. China
2. Department of Cell Biology and Genetics, Zunyi Medical College, Zunyi, 563099, P.R. China
3. Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Affiliated Hospital, Zunyi Medical College, Zunyi, 563099, P.R. China
Author    Correspondence author
Triticeae Genomics and Genetics, 2012, Vol. 3, No. 1   doi: 10.5376/tgg.2012.03.0001
Received: 10 Feb., 2012    Accepted: 12 Mar., 2012    Published: 13 Mar., 2012

This article was first published in Molecular Plant Breeding in Chinese, and here was authorized to translate and publish the paper in English under the terms of Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Liu et al., 2012, Analysis of Characteristics, Mutant Sites and Evolution of Dehydrin 6 (DHN6) Protein in Three Types of Rowed Barleys, Triticeae Genomics and Genetics, Vol.3, No.1 1-8 (doi: 10.5376/tgg.2012.03.0001)

Dehydrins (DHNs), a special polypeptide generated in late embryogenesis of higher plants, could protect the plants from the damage caused by cell dehydration. In order to learn the relationship between characteristics and functions of dehydrins, we cloned Dhn6 genes from three types of rowed barleys, and bioinformatics analysis showed that they encoded proteins  composed of 523 (six-rowed barley), 502 (four-rowed barley) and 486 (two-rowed barley) amino acid residues, respectively. Furthermore, analysis of amino acid mutations found that there were whole conservative traits and mutant sites specificity in this gene. Analyses of protein characteristics and the secondary structure indicated that DHN6 was a highly hydrophilic alkaline protein, and linear structure and numerous random curls were the main component of secondary structure. Moreover, K-segment was involved in the formation of the α-helix, which presumed that the amphipathic α-helices domain of DHN6 might play important roles in protecting membrane structure during the hydration process. The construction of phylogenetic tree of 21 species in this study showed that Dhn6 gene could be an efficient foundation for identifying and distinguishing of different species associated with special sequences of nucleotides, and had a closer genetic distance in Gramineae crops.

Barley (Hordeum vulgare L.); Dhn6 gene; Sequence alignment; Secondary structure; Phylogenesis