A bioinformatics approach to investigate the function of non specific lipid transfer proteins in Arabidopsis thaliana

Abstract:

Plant non specific lipid transfer proteins (nsLTPs) enhance in vitro transfer of phospholipids between membranes. Our analysis exploited the large amount of Arabidopsis transcriptome data in public databases to learn more about the function of nsLTPs. The analysis revealed that some nsLTPs are expressed only in roots, some are seed specific, and others are specific for tissues above ground whereas certain nsLTPs show a more general expression pattern. Only few nsLTPs showed a strong up or downregulation after that the Arabidopsis plant had suffered from biotic or abiotic stresses. However, salt, high osmosis and UV-B radiation caused upregulation of some nsLTP genes. Further, when the coexpression pattern of the A.thaliana nsLTPs were investigated, we found that there were several modules of nsLTP genes that showed strong coexpression indicating an involvement in related biological processes. Our finding reveals that the nsLTPs gene was significantly correlated with lipase and peroxidase activity. Hence we concluded that the nsLTPs may play a role in seed germination, signalling and ligning biosynthesis.