Interactions between wheat Tubby-like and SKP1-like proteins

Tubby proteins are highly conserved in a wide range of multicellular organisms. The Tubby gene family was first verified in obese mice. In plants, 11 Tubby genes have been identified in Arabidopsis, 14 in rice, and 11 in poplar. However, there is very little information about Tubby-like proteins in wheat. In this study, we identified four Tubby-like protein genes (TaTULP1-TaTULP4) in wheat. A comparison of the gene structure showed a conserved exon number pattern in TaTULPs, although the length of the introns differed. With the exception of TaTULP2, TaTULPs had four exons. To identify the chromosome localization of TaTULPs, BLASTn analyses were performed using the URGI database to predict the chromosomal location of TaTULP genes. TaTULP1, 2, 3 and 4 genes were localized on chromosomes 4, 5, 7 and 2. All TaTULPs harbor a Tubby domain in their C-terminal region and an F-box domain in the N terminus. We investigated protein-protein interactions between the F-box domain of TaTULPs and various wheat SKP1-like proteins (TaSKPs) using the yeast two-hybrid system. TaTULP1, TaTULP3 and TaTULP4 were found to interact with TaSKP1, TaSKP3 and TaSKP6, whereas TaTULP2 showed no interaction with TaSKP proteins. TaTULP proteins tagged with green fluorescent protein were targeted to the Golgi apparatus in plant cells. Our analysis of TaTULPs will aid in understanding the functions of TaTULPs in plants.