Genome-Wide Identification, Characterization, and Expression Profiling of the MYC Gene Family in Autotetraploid Alfalfa (Medicago sativa L.)
- 1Key Laboratory of Xinjiang Phytomedicine Resource and Utilization of the Ministry of Education, College of Life Sciences, Shihezi University, Shihezi 832003, China
- 2Agricultural Science Research Institute of the 3rd Division, Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps, No. 9, Qianhai East Street, Tumushuke City 843900, China
Abstract
The MYC gene family plays a central regulatory role in plant stress responses; however, its evolutionary dynamics and functional divergence in the polyploid forage legume alfalfa (Medicago sativa L.) remain largely unknown. Here, through genome-wide identification and comparative genomic analysis, we systematically identified 38 MsMYC genes, which collapsed into 12 ancestral loci based on allele-aware synteny. The high number of sequences was driven mainly by the retention of homoeologous alleles within loci; in addition, one ancient segmental duplication and four tandem duplications contributed to family expansion, whereas strong purifying selection (Ka/Ks < 1 for the 12 ancient segmental paralog pairs) preserved the core functional architecture. Phylogenetic and structural analyses classified these members into five groups, with inter-group differences in motif composition and exon–intron organization suggesting potential functional divergence. Based on promoter cis-acting element prediction and phylogenetic analysis, we selected eight representative MsMYC genes for qRT-PCR analysis, which displayed three representative kinetic behaviors under salt, drought, and hormone treatments within this subset: early-peaking, late-peaking, and opposite-direction responses; subcellular localization analysis of eight representative stress-responsive members supported their nuclear localization, consistent with their roles as transcription factors and with the in silico predictions. Together, these results provide a genomic framework for the temporal and functional differentiation of the MYC gene family in polyploid alfalfa. This study provides candidate genes with distinct temporal expression dynamics for the molecular breeding of salt- and drought-tolerant alfalfa.
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BibTeX
@article{ren2026genomewide,
title = {{Genome-Wide Identification, Characterization, and Expression Profiling of the MYC Gene Family in Autotetraploid Alfalfa (Medicago sativa L.)}},
author = {Wenjing Ren and Guangzhi Jiang and Jiayin Wang and Huan He and Pingping Du and Hongfei Li and Qinglong Shao and Hongbin Li and Quanliang Xie},
journal = {International Journal of Molecular Sciences},
year = {2026},
month = nov,
doi = {10.3390/ijms27219964},
url = {https://www.mdpi.com/1422-0067/27/21/9964},
note = {CC BY 4.0},
}
RIS
TY - JOUR
TI - Genome-Wide Identification, Characterization, and Expression Profiling of the MYC Gene Family in Autotetraploid Alfalfa (Medicago sativa L.)
AU - Wenjing Ren
AU - Guangzhi Jiang
AU - Jiayin Wang
AU - Huan He
AU - Pingping Du
AU - Hongfei Li
AU - Qinglong Shao
AU - Hongbin Li
AU - Quanliang Xie
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/11/06
JO - International Journal of Molecular Sciences
DO - 10.3390/ijms27219964
UR - https://www.mdpi.com/1422-0067/27/21/9964
AB - The MYC gene family plays a central regulatory role in plant stress responses; however, its evolutionary dynamics and functional divergence in the polyploid forage legume alfalfa (Medicago sativa L.) remain largely unknown. Here, through genome-wide identification and comparative genomic analysis, we systematically identified 38 MsMYC genes, which collapsed into 12 ancestral loci based on allele-aware synteny. The high number of sequences was driven mainly by the retention of homoeologous alleles within loci; in addition, one ancient segmental duplication and four tandem duplications contributed to family expansion, whereas strong purifying selection (Ka/Ks < 1 for the 12 ancient segmental paralog pairs) preserved the core functional architecture. Phylogenetic and structural analyses classified these members into five groups, with inter-group differences in motif composition and exon–intron organization suggesting potential functional divergence. Based on promoter cis-acting element prediction and phylogenetic analysis, we selected eight representative MsMYC genes for qRT-PCR analysis, which displayed three representative kinetic behaviors under salt, drought, and hormone treatments within this subset: early-peaking, late-peaking, and opposite-direction responses; subcellular localization analysis of eight representative stress-responsive members supported their nuclear localization, consistent with their roles as transcription factors and with the in silico predictions. Together, these results provide a genomic framework for the temporal and functional differentiation of the MYC gene family in polyploid alfalfa. This study provides candidate genes with distinct temporal expression dynamics for the molecular breeding of salt- and drought-tolerant alfalfa.
SN - 1422-0067
ER -