Molecular insights into drought tolerance in wheat through in-silico genome-wide analysis of DREB1 transcription factor and peroxidase interactions

作者：Lubaba Komal, Atif Kamran, Summera Jahan, Waheed Akram, Manzer H. Siddiqui, Saud Alamri, Muhammad Zeeshan Shakir · 发表于：BMC Plant Biology · 年份：2025 · DOI：10.1186/s12870-025-06938-4 · 被引用次数：6 · 研究领域：Plant Stress Responses and Tolerance、Wheat and Barley Genetics and Pathology、Genetic Mapping and Diversity in Plants and Animals

Wheat (Triticum aestivum) is a staple food crop providing essential nutrition to global population. However, water scarcity and increasing drought stress, because of climate change, threaten its productivity. Oxidative stress increases the production of reactive oxygen species (ROS) due to drought which damages the plant cellular metabolism. Plants counteract this by regulating the transcription of enzymes like catalases, peroxidases, and superoxide dismutase. This research investigated activated biochar's (AB) role on wheat cultivars under deficit irrigation. Activated biochar significantly reduced lipid peroxidation (27-56%) while increasing antioxidant activities (40-60%) under low irrigation as compared to the control (no biochar), suggesting its potential to improve drought resilience. Peroxidase, for presenting significantly higher antioxidant activity, was selected as a key enzyme for molecular docking. Protein-protein interactions between the DREB1 transcription factor and peroxidase, supported by hydrogen bonding, electrostatic interactions, and hydrophobic forces, highlighted the role of biochar mediated peroxidase in oxidative stress response. This interaction highlighted the role of DREB1 in drought resilience, presenting a range of protein sizes, isoelectric points, and stability indices across TaDREB proteins in the wheat genome. Subcellular localization analysis demonstrated that most TaDREB genes, particularly DREB1, are active in the nucleus. At the same time...