In Silico Identification of Genes Involved in Tocopherol Biosynthesis in Lentil Plant

Tocopherols (Vitamin E) are an important group of organic compounds that realize vital activities in plant cells. They protect the photosynthetic system from photooxidation damages and prevent the lipid peroxidation of the chloroplast membrane. The presence of this plant organic compound in human nutrition is essential. In this research, six genes involved in the biosynthesis pathway of vitamin E including HPPD/ PDS1, VTE5, HPT/ VTE2, VTE3/ APG1/ IE35, TC/ VTE1, γ-TMT/ VTE4 and their products are identified in lentil plant using databases and bioinformatics software. After this identification, genes are implemented for breeding purposes of lentil through traditional breeding or modern biotechnology methods. According to the phylogenetic tree obtained by the MEGA 7 program, it was observed that most of these genes in the lentil have high homology to legume plants such as chickpea and alfalfa. In addition, the prediction of the presence of conserved domains revealed that the HPPD protein had two domains and one subdomain, and each of the proteins γ-TMT and VTE3 had only one conserved domain. Moreover, the results of the proteins description using ProtParam tool showed that the highest frequency with respect to the amino acids belonged to leucine, serine and glycine; by contrast, selenocysteine and pyrrolysine had the lowest frequency. The use of the DeepLoc-1.0 program predicted that only HPPD proteins were soluble in the cytoplasm, while five other proteins were located in the intermembrane space.