Insilico analysis of Arabidopsis ferric reductase oxidases (FRO) proteins associated with iron homeostasis

The ferric reduction oxidase (FRO) gene family is involved in various biological processes of plants and plays an essential role in metal homeostasis, tolerance, and signaling networks in response to several abiotic stresses. Our study describes the structural, functional characterization, and evolutionary relationships of eight Arabidopsis FRO proteins. The studies predicted the subcellular localization of FRO proteins to the plasma membrane, mitochondria, and chloroplast organelles. The structural analysis revealed localization of proteins onto the first and fifth chromosomes having 8-9exons and 8-10 transmembrane helices. The protein features of FRO proteins revealed 699-747 amino acids having 79600.02-84126.3 (Da) molecular weight. The six highly conserved protein motifs were predicted with 45-50 amino acids long representing ferric chelate reductase family domains. The phylogeny tree constructed using Clustal W divided the FRO proteins into two clusters and the interactome network revealed the co-expression of COPT1, NRAMP1, NRAMP3, NRAMP4, FRD3, OPT3, IRT1, IRT2, ZIF1, PYE proteins along with the seven FRO proteins.