Genômica estrutural e comparativa dos genes CYP707A de Fragaria x ananassa e ensaios para construção de vetores virais para silenciamento gênico

Abstract

Abscisic acid (ABA) is a plant hormone that plays several roles in plant development. It is associated with the response of organisms to biotic and abiotic stresses, besides influencing physiological processes such as fruit ripening, especially in those classified as non-climateric. On the metabolic pathways associated with ABA, de novo synthesis and reversible inactivation are the best described in the literature, while the degradation promoted by the enzymes Abscisic Acid 8'-Hydroxylase, encoded by the genes of the CYP707A gene family, is still poorly elucidated. Several studies suggest a variety of functions and responses associated with different CYP707A genes and the possibility of using them as biotechnological targets in obtaining engineered cultures that provide an improvement in the physiological response of the plant or in directing metabolic processes. Strawberry has been used as a model to study the maturation process of nonclimacteric fruits, as well in the response to abiotic stress, however, the species' CYP707A genes are not fully described and need to be characterized. In this perspective, CYP707A sequences identified in strawberry fruit transcriptome were used in this work aiming to build a better in silico characterization of the sequences, through structural and comparative genomics analyzes, helping to build a virus-induced gene silencing platform to be used in the study of the effect of CYP707A genes on strawberry development. The alignments between the sequences and the presence of homologues were observed in a Genomic database available for the species, with the characterization of functional groups, signal peptides and their phylogeny, corroborating with the validation of the existence of the copies, and their evolutionary differentiations, strengthening the understanding of the tissue-specific roles of different gene copies in the plant's physiological processes. The interatoma of the sequences with greater homology was also obtained in the database of Fragaria vesca, increasing the reliability of the real existence of the sequences and their role in ABA metabolism and processes related to maturation and resistance to environmental stressors.