Identification of small auxin-up RNA (SAUR) genes in Urticales plants: mulberry (Morus notabilis), hemp (Cannabis sativa) and ramie (Boehmeria nivea).

Small auxin-up RNA (SAUR) genes are important gene families in auxin signalling transduction and are commonly used as early auxin responsive markers. Till date, no SAUR gene is identified in Urticales plants despite of the published bioinformation of mulberry, hemp and ramie. In this study, we used Arabidopsis sequences as query to search against mulberry, hemp genomes and ramie transcriptome database. In total, we obtained 62, 56 and 71 SAUR genes in mulberry, hemp and ramie, respectively. Phylogenetic analysis revealed the Urticales specific expansion of SAUR genes. Expression analysis showed 15 randomly selected ramie SAUR genes that were diversely functioned in ramie tissues and revealed a series of IAA-responsive, drought-responsive and high temperature-responsive genes. Moreover, comparison of qRT-PCR data and previous RNA-Seq data suggested the reliability of our work. In this study, we first report the identification of SAUR genes in Urticales plants. These results will provide a foundation for their function validation in Urticales plant growth and development.