Author(s)

Ye Zhao¹, Dan Wang¹, Yongqiang Zhang¹, Yajie Niu¹, Xiaojuan Zong², Yan Ma¹, Xianfeng Guo¹, Jing Guo^1*

¹Forestry College of Shandong Agricultural University, Tai’an, China.
²Shandong Institute of Pomology, Tai’an, China.

Mitogen-activated protein kinases (MAPKs) are important components in signal transduction modules which play crucial roles in regulation of many biological processes in plants. Although genome-wide analysis of MAPK and MAPKK family has been carried out in poplar species, few data about the biological function analysis of this gene family are available to date. In this study, a group C MAPK gene 84KMPK14 was cloned from hybrid poplar (Populus alba × P. glandulosa cv. “84K”). It contained a typical protein kinase domain, a conserved TEY-motif and an atypical conserved common docking (CD) domain. Sequence alignment revealed that 84KMPK14 was the most homologous to Populus trichocarpa PtMPK14. Expression analysis indicated that the transcript of 84KMPK14 in roots and young leaves was higher than that in other tissues. The expression of 84KMPK14 was down-regulated by low or high temperature and was induced by H₂O₂ significantly. It was suppressed by drought and salinity stresses slightly one hour after treatment and then increased quickly three hours after treatment. These results indicated that 84KMPK14 may be involved in environmental stresses, which provides basis for further characterization of the physiological analysis on this gene.

MAPK, Expression Analysis, Abiotic Stress, 84K Poplar, MPK14

Zhao, Y. , Wang, D. , Zhang, Y. , Niu, Y. , Zong, X. , Ma, Y. , Guo, X. and Guo, J. (2018) Cloning and Characterization of a Mitogen-Activated Protein Kinase Gene 84KMPK14 in Hybrid Poplar (Populus alba × P. glandulosa cv. “84K”). American Journal of Plant Sciences, 9, 2567-2579. doi: 10.4236/ajps.2018.913186.