Identify, evaluate and compare of argonaute proteins in the genome of six medicinal plants

One of the most important proteins in gene silencing and creation of small RNA، are argonaute proteins. Most of these proteins have an endonucleolytic activity so argonaute proteins play a key role in creation of defense mechanism against certain pathogenic viruses. In current study we studied the putative argonaute genes in six medicinal plants using bioinformatic tools. Sequences of argonaute genes of six medicinal plants were retrieved from target database using Arabidopsis Argonaut blast. Sequence alignment، 3D structure، phylogenetic tree and conserved domain were generated for six medicinal plants argonautes. Results showed that studied medicinal plants have 6 to 18 argonaute proteins in the genome. There were three classes of Argonaute proteins similar to that of Arabidopsis، and each varies in length from 846 to 1187 AA، with a average of 970 AA and 108 kDa. six medicinal plants argonaute proteins had PAZ، PIWI and MID conserved domains. Our results showed that six medicinal plants have three classes of argonautes، This indicates is that the conservation of argonaute proteins in different plants.