The thioredoxin gene family in rice: genome-wide identification and expression profiling under different biotic and abiotic treatments

Thioredoxin (TRX) is a multi-functional redox protein. Genome-wide survey and expression profiles of different stresses were observed. Conserved amino acid residues and phylogeny construction using the OsTRX conserved domain sequence suggest that the TRX gene family can be classified broadly into six subfamilies in rice. We compared potential gene birth-and-death events in the OsTRX genes. The Ka/Ks ratio is a measure to explore the mechanism and 3 evolutionary stages of the OsTRX genes divergence after duplication. We used 270 TRX genes from monocots and eudicots for synteny analysis. Furthermore, we investigated expression profiles of this gene family under 5 biotic and 3 abiotic stresses. Several genes were differentially expressed with high levels of expression and exhibited subfunctionalization and neofunctionalization after the duplication event response to different stresses, which provides novel reference for the cloning of the most promising candidate genes from OsTRX gene family for further functional analysis.