Identification and Expression Pattern of Actin Gene Family in Medicago truncatula
Sha Qi
Hou Junze
Zhou Wen
Sun Yongwang
Abstract：Actin is a highly conserved protein widely distributed in eukaryotes.It forms microfilament cy-toskeletons through polymerization to support basic cell morphology and participates in regulating numerous growth and development processes.In the higher plants,actin-encoding genes typically exist as gene families,yet no such reports exist for the legume model plant Medicago truncatula.This study conducted a genome-wide identification of actin genes in M.truncatula,and analyzed their evolutionary relationships,sequence charac-teristics and expression patterns.The results indicated that the M.truncatula genome contained seven actin genes(MtACT1 to MtACT7),which distributed across five chromosomes.Proteins encoded by MtACTs all com-prised 377 amino acids,with sequence similarity exceeding 92％among different members.Based on evolu-tionary relationships,MtACTs could be grouped into three clusters,and the members within the same cluster exhibited similar gene structure.MtACTs displayed diverse expression patterns in different tissues and organs.Among them,MtACT2 and MtACT4 showed stable high expression in various tissues or organs,so they could serve as housekeeping genes for M.truncatula.These findings layed a foundation for further exploration of the biological functions of MtACTs.
Keywords：Medicago truncatulaActinGene familyPhylogenetic analysisExpression pattern
Publication Date：2026-03-30
Online Publishing Date：2026-05-22(First online date of this platform, not the publication date of the document)
Pages：6( 25-30 )