Genome-wide identification and characterization of the sucrose invertase gene family in Hemerocallis citrina

Background Sucrose invertase is an important catalytic enzyme that is widely distributed in plants and can irreversibly hydrolyze sucrose into fructose and glucose. Daylily is an important perennial flower worldwide and a traditional vegetable in East Asia. Previous studies have suggested that sucrose invertase is involved in the aging of daylily flowers. However, knowledge about the number, physicochemical properties, and expression patterns of daylily sucrose invertases is still lacking. Identifying the daylily sucrose invertase family genes in the genome is highly important for understanding phylogenetic evolution and determining the genetic function of sucrose invertase. Methods To obtain basic knowledge about the number, classification, sequence composition, and physicochemical properties of sucrose invertases in daylily, bioinformatics software was used to analyze the genome of Hemerocallis citrina (H. citrina), and the basic properties of sucrose invertase genes and proteins were obtained. Then, combined with transcriptome data from flower organs at different developmental stages, the expression patterns of each gene were clarified. Finally, the reliability of the transcriptome data was verified by quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction (PCR). Results Through software analysis, 35 sucrose invertases were identified from the H. citrina genome and named HcINV1-HcINV35; these enzymes belong to three subfamilies: cell wall invertases, vacuolar invertases, and chloroplast invertases. The amino acid composition, motif types, promoter composition, gene structure, protein physicochemical properties, gene chromosomal localization, and evolutionary adaptability of daylily invertases were determined; these results provided a comprehensive understanding of daylily invertases. The transcriptome expression profile combined with fluorescence quantitative reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT‒PCR) analysis suggested that almost all daylily invertase genes were expressed in flower organs, but even genes belonging to the same subfamily did not exhibit the same expression pattern at different developmental stages, suggesting that there may be redundancy or dissimilation in the function of daylily sucrose invertases.