Identification, evolution and functional inference on the cold-shock domain protein family in Pak-choi (Brassica rapa ssp. chinensis) and Chinese cabbage (Brassica rapa ssp. pekinensis)

ABSTRACT The cold shock domain proteins (CSPs) play important roles in plant developmental processes and stress responses. Multiple sequence alignments found that these CSPs all have a cold shock domain fragment. Phylogenetic tree analysis found that most BcCSPs were more closely related to BrCSPs than other crops. Furthermore, we observed the conserved intron/exon structural patterns of these CSP genes in Pak-choi, Chinese cabbage and Arabidopsis, all motif were observed to be conserved among several boxes subgroups. Comparative analysis of expression patterns of CSP genes in Pak-choi, Chinese cabbage and Arabidopsis suggest that the CSP genes play various roles in plants through qRT-PCR analysis. Further, the CSP expression pattern in different tissues (roots, stems and leaves) of Chinese cabbage was also studied. This study showed that these gene family members might play roles in abiotic stresses responses, and might benefit from their functional characterization and utilization in the resistance engineering of Pak-choi and Chinese cabbage