In-silico Analysis of Hypothetical Heat Tolerance Proteins in Maize

Maize (Zea mays L.) holds significance importance in Pakistan in addition to being the highest yielding cereal crop in the world. But its yield has been severely affected due to the different environmental constraints including heat stress. In order to meet the growing food demand there is dire need to produce climate resilient varieties of maize. For this purpose we need to exploit the biochemical and molecular mechanisms involved in providing heat resistance to maize. In present study four genes were selected which were reportedly involved in response against heat stimulus, but were not structurally and functionally characterized. Therefore in-silico approach was used in order to investigate these hypothetical/candidate proteins. The phylogenetic investigation was conducted to find the evolutionary relationship. The 3D structures were elucidated in addition to the secondary structure prediction. Conserved domains and their interactions with other proteins were analyzed for the functional annotation. Our results showed that the protein sequences of maize are showing constant evolutionary change similar to their homologues. Predicted structures and domains of HPs are involved in conferring heat tolerance to maize crop. NP_001148903.1 is one of the HP; its interactions with other proteins along with its predicted domains, suggests that it is involved in stress response as most of its interacting partners are stress responsive proteins. This theoretical overview of heat tolerance proteins in maize will help researchers in understanding their predicted structure and function which will aide them in designing the genetically engineered varieties of heat resilient maize.