Journal de phylogénétique et de biologie évolutive

Genome-Wide Bioinformatics Analysis of Aquaporin Gene Family in Maize (Zea mays L.)

Abstract

Amna Bari, Muhammad Farooq, Athar Hussain, Muhammad Tahir ul Qamar, Malik Waseem Abbas, Ghulam Mustafa, Asad Karim, Imtiaz Ahmed and Tahir Hussain

Aquaporins are a super family of major intrinsic proteins, which facilitate the fast and passive movement of water across the cell membrane. This study presented genome-wide identification, characterization and functional prediction of aquaporins in maize using bioinformatics. A total of 41 non-redundant putative aquaporins were identified and were classified into four subfamilies: 18 TIPs, 12 PIPs, 8 NIPs and 3 SIPs. The finding reveals that exon-intron organization were conserved within subfamilies. Several transmembrane domains(TM1-TM6) were predicted by analyzing of conserved domains and motifs, along with various selectivity filters(ar/R). The functional prediction demonstrated ZmAQPs roles in regulation of multiple compounds i.e. water, glycerol, carbohydrates, metal ions and others small solutes. Furthermore, ZmAQPs were the crucial constituent of membranous structure such as plasma membrane and vacuolar membrane etc. These results deliver valuable information to address function of ZmAQPs as well as provide basic data for the improvement of plant growth and development.