Abstract
The growth and development of watermelon and melon are affected by abiotic stresses such as cold, salinity and drought. Plant superoxide dismutase (SOD) proteins exerted great effects on plant growth, development and response to abiotic stresses. However, little is known about the characteristics of watermelon and melon SOD gene families and their expression patterns under abiotic stresses. In this study, the genome-wide identification of SOD genes and their expression patterns under abiotic stresses has been done in watermelon and melon. Seven SODs were identified in watermelon and melon, respectively. Chromosome location indicated that the SODs were dispersedly distributed on 4-6 chromosomes. Almost all the SOD proteins contained 300 amino acids or less and the intron numbers of SODs ranged from 5 to 7. On the basis of phylogenetic analysis, the SODs were classified into six sub-groups which was also verified by similar motif composition, gene structure and sub-cellular location. Gene ontology analysis displayed that many SOD proteins participated in binding, catalytic, antioxidant activity and stimulus-response. Cis-regulatory elements related to stresses and hormones were found in the promoters of the SODs. Based on the quantitative real-time PCR, most of CmSOD and ClSOD genes showed obvious up-regulation under low-temperature, NaCl and PEG(6000) treatments. The abiotic stress-responsive SOD genes were identified to improve watermelon and melon tolerance against abiotic stresses. This was a preliminary study to describe the genome-wide analysis of SOD gene family in watermelon and melon, and the results would facilitate further study of gene cloning and functional verification of SOD genes response to abiotic stresses in watermelon and melon. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s13205-021-02726-7.