Molecular and in silico identification of chalcone synthase gene-2 (CHS-2) in sorghum (Sorghum bicolor L.) against anthracnose

Abstract

In India, Sorghum anthracnose is a widespread disease caused by fungi Colletotrichum spp. result in severe economic losses. Chalcone Synthase Gene (CHS) expression induced during biotic and abiotic stresses. CHS is a key enzyme of the flavonoid and isoflavonoid biosynthetic pathway. Sorghum synthesizes various flavanoids in response to fungal infection. A ~1300bp fragment Chalcone synthase-2 gene was amplified by PCR from genomic DNA of Sorghum leaf tissue and further sequenced revealed 1213bp sequence submitted to NCBI database name as Sorghum bicolor chalcone synthase 2 (CHS2) gene [MK955891.1]. Further CHS-2 protein sequence was also checked for the presence of conserved domain as chalcone synthase superfamily from Pfam database acc. no. Pfam PLN03170 with E-value 0.0. Based on BLASTP result, The CHS-2 proteins was further taken for homology modelling validated with Ramachandran plot showed 94.10% amino acid in most favourable region with 634 amino acid of CHS-2 proteins template using swiss model. These study of CHS gene in sorghum help in understanding the induction and regulation of genes involved in flavonoid biosynthesis for combating against anthracnose diseases in sorghum. This is the first report of isolation of CHS -2 gene in sorghum and homology modelling in south Gujarat region of India.