Bioinformatics and Tissue Expression Analysis of GAPDH Gene Family Under Abiotic Stress in Soybean

In order to explore the response mechanism of soybean GAPDH family genes under abiotic stress, we searched the whole genome of soybean GAPDH gene family by homology analysis and conservative structure analysis, and analyzed the phylogenetic relationship, gene structure and conservative motif, chromosome distribution and cis-acting elements of promoter region. We studied the expression patterns of soybean GAPDH family genes in different tissues and after abiotic stress induction. The results showed that 16 GAPDH family members were unevenly distributed on 10 chromosomes at the whole genome level. The subcellular localization prediction revealed that the 16 GAPDH genes of soybean distributed on chloroplasts, cytoplasm and mitochondria. The phylogenetic analysis showed that these GAPDH genes could be divided into four subfamilies（SubⅠ, SubⅡ, Sub Ⅲ and Sub Ⅳ）. Moreover, the gene structure and conserved motifs of each subfamily were highly conserved. Analysis of tissue expression patterns found that most GAPDH genes were expressed in different tissues, and showed obvious tissue specificity. Predictive analysis of promoter cis-acting elements found different homeopathic elements related to abiotic stress response and hormone response, which suggested that it may be involved in the abiotic stress response of soybean. In addition, transcriptome analysis found that, five and nine GAPDH family genes of soybean were significantly up-regulated or down-regulated respectively under drought stress and salt stress, GmGAPDH8 and GmGAPDH9 were significantly up-regulated under drought stress and salt stress. The systematic analysis of soybean GAPDH family genes provide a reference for further study of the regulatory role of soybean GAPDH family genes in abiotic stress response.