In silico analysis of like -G2 gene family and identification of responsive members in wheat to powdery mildew infection

Wheat is one of the most important crops in the world and Iran, and wheat powdery mildew is one of the major wheat diseases that cause yield reduction. Transcription factors are good candidate genes for genetic manipulation to enhance plants stress tolerance. Recently, scientific reports have revealed that the G2-like members in plants are involved in response to pathogens. In order to identify the wheat G2-like members and predict their functions, information of the G2-like protein family was collected from databases such as TFDB and Ensembl. Then, members of this gene family in rice and Arabidopsis were used against proteins and genome of wheat. After removing the duplicate sequences, 83 gene loci encoding 136 protein transcripts were identified. The phylogenetic tree was constructed based on the G2-like protein sequences in wheat with 6 known G2-like in other plants, which divided the family into 6 groups. Based on classification of this family, it could be suggested that groups I, II and V are involved in the processes of powdery mildew response, chloroplast development, and flowering time, respectively. Motif predictions of G2-like protein family illustrated that most members belonging to the same group contain similar motif combinations, which indicates the accurate grouping in the phylogenetic tree and the similar function of members of a group. Chromosomal mapping of the G2-likes in wheat showed that G2-likes are present on all chromosomes. The highest and lowest number of G2-like genes is present on chromosome 6B, and chromosomes D and 3A, respectively.