Genome wide identification and functional assignments of C(2)H(2) Zinc-finger family transcription factors in Dichanthelium oligosanthes

Transcription factors (TFs) are biological regulators of gene function in response to various internal and external stimuli. C(2)H(2) zinc finger proteins (C(2)H(2)-ZFPs) are a large family of TFs that play crucial roles in plant growth and development, hormone signalling and response to biotic and abiotic stresses. While C(2)H(2)-ZFPs have been well characterized in many model and crop plants, they are yet to be ascertained in the evolutionarily important C(3) plant Dichanthelium oligosanthes (Heller's rosette grass). In the present study, we report 32 C(2)H(2)-ZF genes (DoZFs) belonging to three different classes-Q type, C-type and Z-type based on structural elucidation and phylogenetic analysis. Sequence comparisons revealed paralogs within the DoZFs and orthologs among with rice ZF genes. Motif assignment showed the presence of the distinctive C(2)H(2)-ZF conserved domain "QALGGH" in these proteins. Cis-element analysis indicated that majority of the predicted C(2)H(2)-ZFPs are associated with hormone signalling and abiotic stress responses. Further, their role in nucleic acid binding and transcriptional regulation was also observed using predicted functional assignment. Thus, we report an overview of the C(2)H(2)-ZF gene family in D. oligosanthes that could serve as the basis for future experimental studies on isolation and functional implication of these genes in different biological mechanism of C(3) plants.