Brassica oleracea L. var. acephala ABA biosynthesis genes (NCED2 and NCED3) in silico interactome analysis

Abstract

Brassicaceae are industrially important flowering plants and in the same time often used for human consumption. Brassicae species are known heavy metal accumulators and therefore evaluated as potential phytoextraction plants. However, a detail analysis of heavy metal correlated genes, correlating to abscisic acid synthesis, is still not available. ABA (Abscisic acid) signaling genes from Brassica oleracea, NCED_2/3 are known to be correlated to heavy metal stresses, including cupper, arsenic and cadmium. NCED_2/3 proteins control the plants developmental processes and response to environmental stresses such as drought, heat stress, cold tolerance, and primarily, heavy metal influence. Through a simple in silico approach, we have confirmed that NCED_2/3 proteins share more than 65% similarity, as confirmed by phylogenetic analysis and 3D structure models. After the domain and interactome prediction, we revealed that NCED_2/3 strongly correlates with BoXDIX1, ABA₃, BoZE and BoZCD proteins, therefore indicating new roles to NCED_2/3 proteins, which is the involvement in the pigmentation and photoprotection processes of Brassica oleracea.