Identification and classification of NBS-encoding genes in R. sativus
To comprehensively identify potential NBS-encoding genes in radish, the hidden Markov model (HMM) profile NB-ARC (Pfam: PF00931) from the Pfam database was used to screen the protein sequences encoded in the radish genome [34]. A total of 488 gene candidates with an NBS-LRR domain were identified. These candidate NBS-encoding genes were manually screened and functionally annotated according to the closest A. thaliana homolog. Finally, 225 non-redundant NBS-encoding R gene candidates were identified in the Rs1.0 genome (Table 1, Additional file 1: Table S1). The NBS-containing candidate proteins were classified into the TNL or CNL subfamilies based on their HMM profiles and the NCBI Conserved Domain Database, with relationships visualized in a phylogenetic tree (Fig. 1, Table 1). The phylogenetic tree clearly distinguished the TNL and CNL genes in two separate clades (Fig. 1). Gene names were assigned based on their domain type and chromosomal position. The TNL subfamily included 80 genes with full-length domains (TIR, NBS, and LRR) as well as 54 TN (TIR and NBS, but no LRR), 25 NLTNL (NBS and LRR, but no TIR), and 15 NTNL (no TIR or LRR) genes. The remaining 51 genes belonging to the CNL subfamily included 19 with full-length domains (CC, NBS, and LRR) as well as 10 CN (CC and NBS, but no LRR), 9 RN (RPW8 and NBS, but no LRR), 2 NLCNL (NBS and LRR, but no CC), and 11 NCNL (no CC or LRR) genes. Genes encoding RPW8-NBS-LRR proteins were not detected in the radish genome. We also analyzed the well-characterized NBS-encoding genes from the genetically closely related plant species A. thaliana, B. rapa, and B. oleracea (Table 1) using the same method. A total of 164 (A. thaliana), 212 (B. rapa), and 244 (B. oleracea) NBS-encoding genes were identified.
Table 1. Summary of the NBS-encoding genes in R. sativus, A. thaliana, B. rapa, and B. oleracea |
Predicted Type |
Letter code |
R.sativus |
A.thaliana |
B.rapa |
B.oleracea |
TNL type |
|
|
|
|
|
TIR NB LRR |
TNL |
80 |
75 |
81 |
93 |
NB LRR |
NLTNL |
25 |
4 |
7 |
11 |
TIR NB |
TN |
54 |
26 |
38 |
50 |
NB |
NTNL |
15 |
2 |
5 |
23 |
CNL type |
|
|
|
|
|
CC NB LRR |
CNL |
19 |
18 |
19 |
15 |
RW8 NB LRR |
RNL |
0 |
1 |
1 |
1 |
NB LRR |
NLCNL |
2 |
3 |
15 |
3 |
CC NB |
CN |
10 |
11 |
15 |
16 |
RW8 NB |
RN |
9 |
4 |
6 |
12 |
NB |
NCNL |
11 |
20 |
25 |
20 |
Total |
|
225 |
164 |
212 |
244 |
Genomic distribution among radish chromosomes
Of the 225 NBS-encoding genes, 202 were mapped onto nine radish chromosomes, whereas the other 23 genes were located on several scaffolds which were not mapped on the chromosome of R. sativus (Fig. 2, Additional file 1: Table S1). We determined the distribution of CNL, TNL, and partial NBS-encoding genes on different chromosomes (Additional file 2: Fig. S1). Moreover, the TNL genes were almost uniformly distributed on chromosomes R01 to R09, whereas the CNL genes were not detected on chromosomes R03 and R06. Furthermore, chromosome R09 had the most NBS-encoding genes (41), whereas chromosome R03 had the fewest (7). The ratio of radish TNL:CNL genes was almost 4:1 (80:19), which was consistent with the corresponding ratios in A. thaliana (78:18), B. rapa (74:20), and B. oleracea (91:20) [17].
There is no known pattern in the chromosomal distribution of NBS-encoding genes, with most of them detected in clusters. This distribution may facilitate sequence exchanges via recombination mispairing. We identified NBS-encoding gene clusters based on previously established criteria that an NBS-encoding cluster should have two or more genes separated by fewer than 200 kb, with no more than eight non-NBS-encoding genes in between [35]. On radish chromosomes, 146 (72%) NBS genes were mapped in 48 clusters, whereas the remaining 55 genes were detected as singletons (Fig. 2 and Additional file S2). Our analysis revealed that chromosome R09 has the most NBS genes (41; 20.30% of the mapped genes) distributed in eight clusters, in addition to nine singletons. Cluster sizes varied across the genome (2–11 genes). Cluster 44 was the largest, with 11 genes belonging to the TNL subfamily.
To clarify the evolutionary relationships among genes, we analyzed the distribution of NBS-LRR genes among the crucifer blocks in the radish genome. Of the 24 identified blocks (Fig. 2) [36], the U block on chromosomes R02, R04, and R08 was the largest (48 NBS-encoding genes), followed by the R block (24 genes), D block (23 genes), E block (23 genes), and F block (17 genes). The U block may be one of the most important in terms of NBS-encoding genes.
Gene characteristics and structure
The lengths of the genomic and coding sequences of the 225 NBS-encoding genes as well as the length, molecular weight (MW), and isoelectric point (pI) of the corresponding proteins were comprehensively analyzed (Additional file 1: Table S1). The genomic and coding sequence lengths ranged from 336 bp (RsN02) to 11,267 bp (RsTNL06) and from 1,149 bp (RsN02) to 4,899 bp (RsTNL15), respectively. The protein lengths ranged from 111 amino acids (RsN02) to 1,632 amino acids (RsTNL15). There were also significant variations in the MW and pI, which ranged from 12.72 kDa (RsN11) to 182.40 kDa (RsTNL15) and from 4.77 to 9.60, respectively. Additionally, the average MW of the TNL (122.27 kDa) and CNL (99.84 kDa) proteins were markedly different.
To assess the structural diversity of the R. sativus NBS-encoding genes, we compared the number of exons. The full-length CNL and TNL genes in the radish genome had an average of 2.42 and 5.26 exons, respectively (Fig. 3), which is consistent with the analyses of A. thaliana, B. rapa, and B. oleracea, in which the CNL and TNL genes have an average of 2.2, 2.3, and 3.4, and 5.3, 5.2, and 6.4 exons, respectively. Moreover, 47.37% of the CNL genes were encoded by a single exon. These results indicate that the number of introns may have increased and decreased during the structural evolution of the two types of NBS-LRR resistance genes in radish.
Cis-element analysis
Cis-elements in promoters are usually involved in gene regulation. Thus, to further investigate the potential regulatory networks of the NBS-encoding genes, the cis-elements in the sequences 2 kb upstream of the start codon of 225 NBS-encoding genes were analyzed with PlantCARE (Additional file 1: Table S3). A total of 70 cis-elements were detected, including 10 hormone-responsive elements, 33 light-responsive elements, 4 elements related to abiotic stress, 8 elements associated with tissue-specific expression, and 15 other elements. The cis-element DRE, which is a common cis-acting element in promoter and enhancer regions, was detected in the promoter region of 218 NBS-encoding genes. Additionally, an AT-rich fragment, which is a core promoter element located approximately 30 bp upstream of the transcription start site, was detected in 216 NBS-encoding genes. This sequence was considered to be an essential element in the promoter of the NBS-encoding genes. The promoter region of 159 NBS-encoding genes included the CGTCA-motif, which is a cis-acting regulatory element associated with methyl jasmonate-responsiveness. The abscisic acid-responsive element influencing abscisic acid responsiveness was detected in the promoter region of 165 genes, suggesting that NBS-encoding genes are involved in plant responses to pathogen infections. Moreover, a TCA-element, which is involved in salicylic acid responses, was detected in 97 gene promoters, whereas the TGA-element related to auxin responses was identified in 82 gene promoters. Furthermore, the P-box and GARE-motif associated with gibberellin-responsiveness were present in 55 and 40 NBS-encoding gene promoters, respectively. These results may be relevant for developing a method for identifying candidate genes related to disease resistance.
Conserved motifs and phylogenetic relationships among TNLs and CNLs
To investigate the TNL and CNL gene and protein structures, we built a phylogenetic tree based on the full-length amino acid sequences encoded by the R. sativus TNL and CNL genes. The phylogenetic analysis indicated that the radish NBS-LRRs can be divided into two large groups, namely CNL and TNL (Fig. 4 and Additional file 1: Table S4). The RsTNL group comprised four subgroups. Of the 80 RsTIR proteins, 49, 10, 5, and 16 belonged to subgroups RsTNL-1, RsTNL-2, RsTNL-3, and RsTNL-4, respectively. These results were identical to those of phylogenetic analyses of R. sativus and A. thaliana (Additional file Fig. 2).
To further elucidate the potential functions and diversification of the TNL and CNL genes in R. sativus, 20 encoded conserved motifs were identified and numbered 1–20 based on the MEME program (Additional file 1: Tables S4 and S5). The TIR domain was detected in all RsTNLs. Additionally, the RsTNL-1 subgroup members had most of the motifs. The RsTNL-2 and RsTNL-3 proteins lacked motifs 20 and 11, respectively. The proteins in subgroup RsTNL-4 were missing motifs 11, 12, and 16 (Fig. 3). The RsCNL group members mostly had only six motifs, including the CC domain. Common motif compositions were revealed within subgroups. However, regarding the motif types and numbers, there was considerable diversity among subgroups. This suggests the proteins within subgroups are functionally similar.
Tandem duplication and synteny analyses of NBS-encoding genes
Whole-genome and tandem duplications are critical events for enhancing genome complexity and evolutionary novelty. In the R. sativus genome, 34 of 225 NBS-encoding genes (15.11%) were associated with tandem duplications and were distributed in 15 tandem arrays of 2–5 genes (Additional file 1: Table S6). Our data also revealed variability in the number of duplicated genes per tandem duplication event and an uneven distribution of these duplications on five of nine chromosomes. Genes encoding domains (e.g., CNL, TNL, and TN) were present in the tandem arrays. The 14 tandem duplication events detected for chromosome R09 involved five RsTN genes. In contrast, single tandem duplication events occurred on chromosomes R02, R06, R07, R08, and R09, each involving two genes. Chromosome R08 had the most tandem arrays (six tandem groups containing 13 genes), reflecting a hot spot for the distribution of NBS-encoding genes. An analysis of our data according to BLASTP and MCScanX methods identified 20 segmental duplication events involving 32 NBS-encoding genes (Fig. 4 and Additional file 1: Table S7).
The Ka/Ks values (Additional file 1: Table S8) of the pairs of segmentally duplicated genes were less than 1, indicating these genes evolved under negative selection. These results suggest that both tandem and segmental duplication events were a major driving force for the evolutionary expansion of the NBS-encoding genes in the radish genome.
Comparative synteny analyses of orthologous pairs of NBS-encoding genes
To further investigate the phylogenetic relationships among the radish NBS-encoding genes, we constructed three synteny maps comparing radish with A. thaliana, B. rapa, and B. oleracea. A total of 209 pairs of NBS-encoding genes (Additional file 1: Table S9) had syntenic relationships between R. sativus and A. thaliana, B. rapa, and B. oleracea. Specifically, 39 orthologous gene pairs were detected between R. sativus and A. thaliana, whereas there were 73 pairs between R. sativus and B. rapa as well as 97 pairs between R. sativus and B. oleracea (Fig. 5). Of the 39 pairs between R. sativus and A. thaliana, all were single-copy genes, except for RsCN06, which had two copies. Four partial NBS genes (RsNTIR19, RsNLTIR07, RsTN31, and RsTN39) in the radish genome were detected as homologous to A. thaliana TNL genes (AT1G63730, AT5G45210, and AT1G63860). The A. thaliana partial NBS gene AT5G18350 corresponded to the complete NBS gene RsTNL12. Of the 73 gene pairs between R. sativus and B. rapa, 46 radish NBS-LRR genes were present as a single copy, whereas there were two copies of 12 genes and three copies of one gene (RsTN01). The Bra027122 (no TIR domain) and Bra030779 (no CC domain) B. rapa genes corresponded to RsTNL75 and RsCNL11, respectively. Moreover, four RsTN genes (RsTN26, 34, 39, and 44) and RsNL01 were syntenic with TNL genes (Bra001160, Bra024652, Bra027779, and Bra027772), whereas RsCN02 was syntenic with a CNL gene (Bra019063) in the B. rapa genome. Overall, we detected 59 radish NBS-encoding genes syntenic with 64 NBS-encoding genes in the B. rapa genome (Additional file 1: Table S9). There were about 97 homologous gene pairs between R. sativus and B. oleracea, among which 47, 19, and 4 NBS-encoding genes in radish were retained as one, two, and three copies, respectively, in B. oleracea, with the remaining genes lacking syntenic relationships. The partial NBS-encoding genes RsTN11, RsTN31, RsNL07, and RsN19 were syntenic with complete TNL genes (Bo2g010720, Bo8g104700, Bo9g061200, and Bo9g029350) in the B. rapa genome. Additionally, two RsCNL genes (RsCNL03 and RsCNL05) as well as four RsTNL genes (RsTNL09, RsTNL14, RsTNL62, and RsTNL72) corresponded to partial NBS genes (Bo6g020950, Bo1g048080, Bo3g154220, Bo6g089230, Bo2g126980, and Bo3g006960) in the B. rapa genome. We detected a total of 70 radish NBS-encoding genes syntenic with 67 NBS-encoding genes in the B. oleracea genome (Additional file 1: Table S9). An analysis of the synteny among the radish, A. thaliana, B. rapa, and B. oleracea genomes revealed the complete NBS-LRR genes were more syntenic than the partial genes.
Finally, a comparative analysis of the orthologous pairs of NBS-LRR genes among four species (R. sativus, A. thaliana, B. rapa, and B. oleracea) revealed 22 R. sativus NBS-encoding genes with corresponding copies in the A. thaliana, B. rapa, and B. oleracea genomes (Fig. 6 and Additional file 1: Table S10). There was a one-to-one relationship among the NBS-encoding genes between the R. sativus and A. thaliana genomes. Additionally, half of the radish genes had single-copy syntenic genes in the B. rapa and B. oleracea genomes. Furthermore, the B. rapa and B. oleracea genomes had two and three copies of RsTN38, respectively, as well as three copies of RsTN01. Accordingly, these genes may have been important for the evolution of the NBS-LRR gene family.
The Ka/Ks ratio indicates the selective pressure on genes during evolution. We examined the Ka/Ks ratio for the orthologous gene pairs to determine the evolutionary selection patterns of NBS-LRR genes among R. sativus, A. thaliana, B. rapa, and B. oleracea. The Ka/Ks ratio reflects the number of non-synonymous substitutions per non-synonymous site (Ka) and the number of synonymous substitutions per synonymous site (Ks). The ratios for the orthologous gene pairs were estimated for each branch of the phylogenetic tree using the KaKs Calculator. The segmentally and tandemly duplicated NBS-LRR gene pairs as well as all orthologous NBS-LRR gene pairs had a Ka/Ks ratio < 1 (Additional file 1: Table S11), suggesting that the radish NBS-LRR gene family might have experienced strong purifying selection pressure during evolution
Radish NBS-LRR gene expression profiles in response to F. oxysporum f. sp. raphanin 59 (FOR59)
To identify NBS-LRR genes responsive to a FOR59 infection and determine their spatiotemporal expression patterns, we analyzed the transcriptome data for all NBS-LRR genes. The transcriptome data were generated for whole plant seedlings of the ‘YR4’ and ‘YR18’ genotypes infected with FOR59; the whole seeding of ‘YR4’ and ‘YR18’ were collected on days 0, 1, 3, and 6 after the inoculation of F. oxysporum for the subsequent sequencing on the Illumina platform. Furthermore, we extracted the NBS-LRR genes from the generated RNA-seq data. Transcriptome data were obtained for 171 of 225 NBS-encoding genes based on the conserved domains and gene IDs. The remaining unidentified genes may be unexpressed in response to a FOR59 infection. Among these 171 NBS-encoding genes, 29 were not differentially expressed between ‘YR4’ and ‘YR18’, and were minimally expressed at all time intervals. Thus, these genes were excluded from the gene expression analysis. The fragments per kilobase of exon per million fragments mapped (FPKM) values obtained for the 142 remaining NBS-LRR genes varied from 0 to 278.884. A total of 80 NBS-encoding genes had an FPKM value less than 1 FPKM (low expression), whereas there were 84 genes with more than 1 FPKM value, and less than 10 (high expression). Extremely high expression represented in 13 genes with more than 10, and less than 50; 1 gene with more than 50, less than 100; and 1 gene with more than 100, less than 300. The differentially expressed genes following the FOR59 inoculation were analyzed with the R package edgeR [37], which revealed 36 genes that were more highly expressed in the resistant ‘YR4’ line than in the susceptible ‘YR18’ line at various time-points (Fig. 7). Seven genes (RsCN10, RsN21, RsN26, RsNL19, RsTN04, RsTNL15, and RsTNL38) were up-regulated only in ‘YR18’, whereas six genes (RsCN05, RsCNL17.3, RsN22.1, RsTN31, RsTN32, and RsTN43) were up-regulated in ‘YR4’. Most importantly, the expression of five genes (RsN25.2, RsNL07, RsTN18, RsTNL09, and RsTN17) gradually increased over time in the ‘YR4’ plants, but remained relatively stable in the ‘YR18’ plants, implying they may be crucial for the resistance to Fusarium wilt. However, the RsTNL51 expression level was higher in ‘YR18’ than in ‘YR4’, and gradually increased during the infection period (Fig. 7g). These findings suggest a total of 75 NBS-LRR genes contribute to the resistance of radish to Fusarium wilt, with six genes (RsN25.2, RsNL07, RsTN18, RsTNL09, RsTN17, and RsTNL51) potentially crucial for the resistance.
Responses to FOR59 infections
The expression patterns of NBS-LRR-encoding genes in ‘YR4’ and ‘YR18’ plants were confirmed by a quantitative real-time (qRT)-PCR assay. Specifically, we validated the expression of only the CNL and TNL genes. Of the 19 RsCNL and 80 RsTNL genes in the radish genome, approximately 40 genes encoded proteins with amino acid differences between ‘YR4’ and ‘YR18’. The expression patterns of these genes in ‘YR4’ and ‘YR18’ at 0, 1, 3, 6, 9, and 12 days after inoculation (DAI) were determined, with the 18S rRNA gene used as an internal control. The RsTNL03 (Rs093020) and RsTNL09 (Rs042580) genes on chromosome R02 were significantly more highly expressed in the resistant ‘YR4’ plants than in the susceptible ‘YR18’ plants (Fig. 8), indicating these two genes are related to the Fusarium wilt resistance of radish. Interestingly, both genes were similarly expressed in ‘YR4’ and ‘YR18’ on day 0, but the infection rapidly up-regulated the expression levels in ‘YR4’ plants. The expression levels continued to increase until 9 DAI, further suggesting their potential role in Fusarium wilt resistance. Homologs of RsTNL09 (Rs042580) were identified in A. thaliana (AT4G36150), B. rapa (Bra010552 and Bra011666), and B. oleracea (Bo3g154220 and Bo7g117810).