Chiang Mai Journal of Science

 Late Embryogenesis Abundant (LEA) was first described to accumulate during plant seed dehydration, absolutely at the late stages of embryogenesis. Since then they have also been found in plant vegetative tissues under water limitation, thereby, associated with the acquisition of desiccation tolerance. This work provides furnishes the first comprehensive study about the LEA gene family in Amaranthus hypochondriacus, which is that the important grain crops and widely grown around the world. A total of 46 genes encoding LEAs (AhLEAs) were identified and classified into eight groups (LEA1, LEA2, LEA3, LEA4, LEA5, LEA6, DHN, and SMP) depending on basis of their predicted amino acid sequences and further on their phylogenetic relationships with the Arabidopsis thaliana LEA proteins (AtLEAs). A linking gene structure and motif architecture were observed within each LEA group. Analysis of their chromosomal localizations revealed that the AhLEAs were non-randomly distributed across all 16 chromosomes and that 43% of all AhLEAs are tandemly or whole-genome duplicated genes. In silico expression analysis using RNA-seq data revealed that the AhLEA genes were widely expressed in various vegetative and reproductive tissues especially including mature seeds. The tissue-specific expression was observed for most of AhLEA genes. Additionally, most of AhLEA genes were up-regulated by water deficit stress. These results bring about hand over a useful reference to further investigate the AhLEAs functions and to apply on crop improvement.