*4.3. In Silico Analyses of CsLEA Proteins.*

Determination of GRAVY (grand average of hydropathicity index) values and pI (theoretical isoelectric point) were carried out by the ProtParam Tool (web.expasy.org/protparam/) [59]. Protein Prowler Subcellular Localization Predictor version 1.2 (http://bioinf.scmb.uq.edu.au/ pprowler\_webapp\_1--2/) 53 and TargetP1.1 (http://www.cbs.dtu.dk/services/TargetP/) servers [60] were used to predict the subcellular locations of *C. songorica* LEA proteins. All of the prediction servers were run under the default settings. To determine the conserved motifs in different *C. songorica* and Arabidopsis LEA proteins, protein sequences were analyzed using MEME (The Multiple Expectation Maximization for Motif Elicitation) platform (http://alternate.meme-suite.org/) [61]. MEME parameters were then customized to detect a maximum of 40 motifs with a width covering 6 to 50 amino acid residues.
