Objective To explore the putative function ofROPs in forest trees.

Method A genome-wide analysis of ROPs was performed, including the phylogeny, gene structure, conserved motifs, ROP amino sequences similarity between Populus and Arabidopsis ROP proteins and the expression patterns using Populus as a model.

Result The results showed that there were 13 members of PtROP genes in Populus and the PtROP genes were conserved during evolution of species, all of them containing GTP binding and hydrolysis-related domains. Furthermore, the expression profiles revealed that Populus PtROP had distinct expression pattern across different tissues and different stress conditions, suggesting that PtROP genes were involved in different biological processes. In addition, the analysis on PtROP gene functional network was conducted. It is predicted that Populus PtROP genes were mainly involved in signal transduction.

ConcludeIn this study, systematically bioinformatics analysis on PtROP were conducted which laid the foundation for the further exploration of poplar PtROP functions.