In silico analysis of MAPKK5 variants in Brassica Oleracea

Abstract

Brassica Oleracea is a well-known heavy metal accumulator and one of the most economically important crops. Besides its industrial usages, it could be utilized for phytoremediation of contaminated soil. In this study, we tried to analyze the four variants of MAPKK5 genes, mainly correlated to heavy metal stress, and to correlate their functions with other heavy metal proteins related to heavy metal absorption. This was done through a detailed in silico analysis, by using various bioinformatics tools like Clustal Omega, Phelogeny.fr, Phyre2, PyMOL, Loctree3, SMART, STRING, and Cluspro2. We found that MAPKK5 variants have high sequence similarity, resulting in their 3D structure similarity.  The results indicate that MAPKK5 proteins interact with the same protein members and that all proteins are located in the cytoplasm. Eventually, when we concluded and confirmed that MAPKK5 proteins might be involved in the MAPK cascade process, regulating many cellular activities, demonstrating that mitogen-activated protein kinase cascades are quickly activated when a plant is attacked by pathogens.