Bioinformatic Tools for Identification and Putative Expression Analysis of MYB Transcription Factor Genes in Rice (Oryza sativa)

Oryza is considered a staple cereal crop and plays a fundamental role as an important source of food for most people worldwide. However, various abiotic stresses significantly impairs the productivity and leading to yield declines ranging from 20% up to 50% and the difficulty was increased by the intensification of drought episodes. So by elucidating the physiological and molecular mechanisms underlying rice’s adaptation to water deficit throughout its growth stages is essential. For that, in this study the Bioinformatics methods and tools were utilized to identify the MYB transcription factor genes which related to abiotic stress tolerance in rice based on the percentage of similarity between these genes and the other genes from various plants such as; soybean, wheat, barley, and Arabidopsis. And from our results, we identify 114 transcription factors genes that are putatively related with drought response and other abiotic stress. Fur-thermore, the putative expression profiles of our target genes at various tissues and developmental stages were analyzed using the BAR database and based on MAS and RMA methodologies. In addition, the expression levels of our target genes were variable at various tissues and development stages such as; Rice-MAS, Rice-RMA, Rice Anoxia-MAS, Rice Anoxia-RMA, Rice Stress-MAS, Rice Stress-RMA, Rice Stigma-MAS, Rice Stigma-RMA, Rice Leaf-Gradient. In the end, this study provides valuable information about the putative functional role and mechanisms of action of these genes in different tissues under various abiotic stress conditions, which can be used in many future studies with the aim of improving rice plant yield.