Genome-wide identification of the oat DMP gene family and its expression analysis in response to seed aging

Abstract Background: The Domain of unknown function 679 membrane proteins (DMPs) family, as a green plant-specific membrane protein, plays an important role in plant reproductive development, stress response and aging. To identify the DMP gene members of oat ( AsDMP ) and to investigate their family structural features and tissue expression profile characteristics, a study was conducted. Based on the whole genome and transcriptome data, in this investigation, we have scrutinized the physicochemical properties, gene structure, cisacting elements, phylogenetic relationships, conserved structural (CS) domains, CS motifs and expression patterns of the AsDMP family of oat. Results The DMP family genes of oat were found distributed across 17 chromosomal scaffolds with 33 members. We could divide the AsDMP genes into five subfamilies based on phylogenetic relationships. The gene structure suggests that oats may have also undergone an intron loss event during evolution. Covariance analysis suggests that genome-wide duplication/segmental duplication may be the major contributor to the expansion of the AsDMP gene family. Ka/Ks selective pressure analysis of oat DMP gene family, suggests that DMP gene pairs tend to be conserved over evolutionary time. The upstream promoter of these genes containing several cis-acting elements indicates a plausible role in abiotic stress and hormone induction. Gene expression pattern according to transcriptome data revealed participation of the DMP genes in tissue and organ development. In this study, AsDMP genes ( AsDMP1 , AsDMP19 , and AsDMP22 ) were identified as potentially regulating oat seed senescence, and can be used as candidate genes for seed longevity and anti-aging germplasm breeding studies in oat. The study provides valuable information on the regulatory mechanism of the AsDMP gene family in the aging process of oat germplasm, and also provides theoretical support for further function investigation in the oat DMP gene and the molecular mechanism of seed anti-aging. Conclusions In this study, we found that the AsDMP gene is involved in the aging process of oat seeds, which is the first report on the potential role of DMP genes in oat seeds.