Genome-wide functional characterization of Canavalia rosea cysteine-rich trans-membrane module (CrCYSTM) genes to reveal their potential protective roles under extreme abiotic stress.

Cysteine-rich transmembrane module (CYSTM) proteins constitute small molecular protein families and have been identified across eukaryotes, including yeast, humans, and several plant species. Plant CYSTM s play vital roles in growth regulation, development, phytohormone signal transduction, pathogen defense, environmental stress response, and even heavy metal binding and detoxification. Canavalia rosea (Sw.) DC is a perennial halophyte with great semi-arid and saline-alkali tolerance. In this study, the CrCYSTM family including 10 members were identified in the C. rosea genome, with the purpose of clarifying the possible roles of CrCYSTM s in C. rosea plants development and stress resistance. The phylogenetic relationships, exon–intron structure, domain structure, chromosomal localization, and putative cis -acting elements in promoter regions were predicted and analyzed. Transcriptome analysis combined with quantitative reverse transcription PCR showed that different CrCYSTM members exhibited varied expression patterns in different tissues and under different abiotic stress challenges. In addition, several CrCYSTM s were cloned and functionally characterized for their roles in abiotic stress tolerance with yeast expression system. Overall, these findings provide a foundation for functionally characterizing plant CYSTM s to unravel their possible roles in the adaptation of C. rosea to tropical coral reefs. Our results also lay the foundation for further research on the roles of plant CYSTM genes in abiotic stress signaling, especially for heavy metal detoxification. • A CrCYSTM gene family is characterized from halophyte Canavalia rosea (Canavalia DC). • Ten CrCYSTM genes were identified and the chromosomal localization, phylogenetic relationships, gene structures, protein domain structures, promoters' features were predicted systematically. • The expression patterns of CrCYSTM s analyzed based on the RNA-seq data and quantitative reverse transcription (qRT)-PCR, with the purpose of identification whether CrCYSTMs are involved in C. rosea plants responding to abiotic stress. • Seven CrCYSTM s were cloned and functionally characterized for their roles in abiotic stress tolerance in yeast. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]