Isolation and characterization of drought responsive Aldehyde dehydrogenase (ALDH) gene from drought tolerant wild relative of sugarcane, Erianthus arundinaceus

Abstract

Aldehyde dehydrogenases are oxidising enzymes that play essential role in response to drought stress. Sugarcane, an important high biomass producing commercial crop and its productivity is influenced by drought stress. A drought responsive Aldehyde dehydrogenase (ALDH) gene was isolated from Erianthus arundinaceus and characterized based on in silico analysis to understand about its physicochemical properties, phylogeny and structure. The isolated EaALDH gene is 1527 bp encoding for protein of length 508 amino acids. The in silico study ascertained physiochemical properties of ALDH protein viz., molecular weight 54.19 kDa, theoretical pI 6.42, aliphatic index 94.27, grand average of hydropathicity (GRAVY) 0.146 and instability index 32.95. The subcellular localization analysis predicted the protein to be localized in peroxisome. The protein-protein association network showed the networking of ALDH with other ALDH family members. Real time quantitative polymerase chain reaction indicated higher expression ALDH gene in E. arundinaceus compared to Saccharum spp. hybrid under low water conditions. This study characterized EaALDH gene involved in drought stress response and highlighted its importance in incorporating EaALDH in sugarcane improvement programmes.

Keywords

• erianthus arundinaceus; water deficit stress; aldh gene