Abstract: Pentatricopeptide repeat (PPR) proteins are a kind of sequence-specific RNA binding proteins and targeted at semi-autonomous organelles, which play essential roles in play growth and development. In this study, the CsPPR genes were systematically identified by bioinformatics analysis based on the tea genome data. Then, their subcellular localization, physicochemical properties, gene structures, the chromosome locations and distribution were analyzed. The results show that a total of 858 putative CsPPR members were obtained from the genome data, which belong to P and PLS subfamilies. Domain analysis shows that each domains were relatively conservative in tea plants. Subcellular localization prediction indicates more than half of CsPPR proteins were located in the chloroplasts. Gene structure analysis shows that 31% of CsPPR genes lacked intron and the gene family had undergone extensive gene duplication events in the process of evolution. Subsequently, In order to investigate the role of CsPPR gene family in regulating the gene expressions of albino tea plants, transcriptome analysis was performed on the normal leaf color cultivar ‘Shuchazao’ and five albino tea cultivars such as ‘Anji Huangcha’. And 24 differential co-expressed CsPPR genes were identified from transcriptome data of five groups, and the real-time quantitative PCR technology was used to analysis the expression pattern of the 24 CsPPR genes in different cultivars and tissues of tea plants, and the results show that the majority of them were highly expressed in shoots, mature leaves and stems. The research results would provide a basis for CsPPR gene cloning and functional research.

Key words: tea plants, PPR gene family, transcriptome, bioinformatics, real-time quantitative PCR