The contribution of proteins with binding activity and specific metabolic pathways in tolerating abiotic stress by canola: An in silico study

Abstract

Plants indicate different degrees of sensitivity and of tolerance upon encountering stressful conditions. In molecular level, plants respond in complex manner to stressful conditions. Obviously, the tolerant plants recruit molecular mechanisms that enable them to trigger appropriate reactions. To investigate molecular mechanisms involved in the response of Canola to stress conditions, two cultivars of Canola including Sarigol (as a sensitive cultivar) and Hyola308 (as a tolerant cultivar) were in silico studied based on their identified proteins with significantly expression changes under abiotic stresses.  The results indicated that in Hyola308, the genes/proteins that are mostly involved in the response to stress and with functions related to binding activity are overrepresented. In term of Sarigol, the number of the genes/proteins involved in response to stress were the low and the most of its induced genes/proteins were involvement in catalytic and antioxidant activities. Five metabolic pathways including protein processing in endoplasmic reticulum, carbon fixation in photosynthetic organisms, endocytosis, spliceosome, and fructose and mannose metabolism were uniquely observed in Hyola308, which could be in relation with the tolerance of Hyola308. These pathways could be supposed as key metabolic pathways in Canola under stress. Finally, the genes UGD2, TPI, and AT3G09440 are introduced as potential candidate to be regarded in genetic engineering of Canola due to their core central roles in PPI network.