A Driving Bioinformatics Approach to Explore Co-regulation of AOX Gene Family Members During Growth and Development

The alternative oxidase (AOX) gene family is a hot candidate for functional marker development that could help plant breeding on yield stability through more robust plants based on multi-stress tolerance. However, there is missing knowledge on the interplay between gene family members that might interfere with the efficiency of marker development. It is common view that AOX1 and AOX2 have different physiological roles. Nevertheless, both family member groups act in terms of molecular-biochemical function as “typical” alternative oxidases and co-regulation of AOX1 and AOX2 had been reported. Although conserved sequence differences had been identified, the basis for differential effects on physiology regulation is not sufficiently explored. This protocol gives instructions for a bioinformatics approach that supports discovering potential interaction of AOX family members in regulating growth and development. It further provides a strategy to elucidate the relevance of gene sequence diversity and copy number variation for final functionality in target tissues and finally the whole plant. Thus, overall this protocol provides the means for efficiently identifying plant AOX variants as functional marker candidates related to growth and development.