Genome-Wide Identification and Expression Analysis of bZIP Family Genes in Stevia rebaudiana

Mengyang Wu; Jinsong Chen; Weilin Tang; Yijie Jiang; Zhaoyong Hu; Dongbei Xu; Kai Hou; Yinyin Chen; Wei Wu

doi:10.3390/genes14101918

Genome-Wide Identification and Expression Analysis of bZIP Family Genes in Stevia rebaudiana

Genes (Basel). 2023 Oct 9;14(10):1918. doi: 10.3390/genes14101918.

Authors

Mengyang Wu¹, Jinsong Chen¹, Weilin Tang¹, Yijie Jiang¹, Zhaoyong Hu¹, Dongbei Xu¹, Kai Hou¹, Yinyin Chen¹, Wei Wu¹

Affiliation

¹ Agronomy College, Sichuan Agricultural University, Chengdu 611130, China.

Abstract

The basic (region) leucine zippers (bZIPs) are evolutionarily conserved transcription factors widely distributed in eukaryotic organisms. In plants, they are not only involved in growth and development, defense and stress responses and regulation of physiological processes but also play a pivotal role in regulating secondary metabolism. To explore the function related to the bZIP gene family in Stevia rebaudiana Bertoni, we identified 105 SrbZIP genes at the genome-wide level and classified them into 12 subfamilies using bioinformation methods. Three main classes of cis-acting elements were found in the SrbZIP promoter regions, including development-related elements, defense and stress-responsive elements and phytohormone-responsive elements. Through protein-protein interaction network of 105 SrbZIP proteins, SrbZIP proteins were mainly classified into four major categories: ABF2/ABF4/ABI5 (SrbZIP51/SrbZIP38/SrbZIP7), involved in phytohormone signaling, GBF1/GBF3/GBF4 (SrbZIP29/SrbZIP63/SrbZIP60) involved in environmental signaling, AREB3 (SrbZIP88), PAN (SrbZIP12), TGA1 (SrbZIP69), TGA4 (SrbZIP82), TGA7 (SrbZIP31), TGA9 (SrbZIP95), TGA10 (SrbZIP79) and HY5 (SrbZIP96) involved in cryptochrome signaling, and FD (SrbZIP72) promoted flowering. The transcriptomic data showed that SrbZIP genes were differentially expressed in six S. rebaudiana cultivars ('023', '110', 'B1188', '11-14', 'GP' and 'GX'). Moreover, the expression levels of selected 15 SrbZIP genes in response to light, abiotic stress (low temperature, salt and drought), phytohormones (methyl jasmonate, gibberellic acid and salicylic acid) treatment and in different tissues were analyzed utilizing qRT-PCR. Some SrbZIP genes were further identified to be highly induced by factors affecting glycoside synthesis. Among them, three SrbZIP genes (SrbZIP54, SrbZIP63 and SrbZIP32) were predicted to be related to stress-responsive terpenoid synthesis in S. rebaudiana. The protein-protein interaction network expanded the potential functions of SrbZIP genes. This study firstly provided the comprehensive genome-wide report of the SrbZIP gene family, laying a foundation for further research on the evolution, function and regulatory role of the bZIP gene family in terpenoid synthesis in S. rebaudiana.

Keywords: S. rebaudiana; abiotic stress; basic leucine zipper; expression analysis; light; phytohormone.

Publication types

Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

Genes, Plant
Genome, Plant
Plant Growth Regulators / genetics
Plant Growth Regulators / pharmacology
Stevia* / genetics
Terpenes

Substances

Plant Growth Regulators
Terpenes

Grants and funding

This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC grant no. 31671757), the Foundation on Double-Support Plan of Disciplinary Construction in Sichuan Agricultural University-Innovation Team Projects (grant No. P202108) and the Foundation on Sichuan Key Discipline Construction Project of Traditional Chinese Medicine (grant No. 2021-16-4). The supporters had no role in the study design, data collection, data analysis, the writing of the manuscript or the decision to publish.