| Abstract |
Glutamate receptor-like genes (GLRs) are intimately associated with plant development, defence responses and signalling pathways. Structural and expression analyses of SlGLRs were performed to better characterise their roles in fruit development and metabolism. Utilising recently released tomato genomic sequence data, 15 GLRs were identified in the tomato genome (SlGLRs). Thirteen of these genes were represented by full-length sequences. Phylogenetic analysis of the SlGLRs and the AtGLRs indicates the occurrence of a tomato-specific clade (Clade I) that may have diverged prior to the evolving of other clades. Among the Clade II genes, five (SlGLR2.1, SlGLR2.2, SlGLR2.3, SlGLR2.4, and SlGLR2.5) were located proximally on chromosome 6, indicating possible gene duplication events. The expression level of four of these genes was low in all analysed samples. However, SlGLR2.2 expression level was notably higher, indicating that this gene may be functionally important. The results of this study may provide clues to the functions of the SlGLRs and enable future detailed characterisations of each gene.
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