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Genomic identification and expression analysis of the BBX transcription factor gene family in Petunia hybrida

Molecular Biology Reports volume 47, pages 6027–6041 (2020)Cite this article

Abstract

The B-box proteins (BBXs) are a class of zinc finger transcription factors containing one or two B-BOX domains that play important roles in plant growth, development and stress response. The petunia (Petunia hybrida) is a model ornamental plant, and its draft genome has been published. However, no systematic study of the BBX gene family in Petunia has been reported. In this study, a total of 28 BBX members from the Petunia genome were identified. We performed analyses of their phylogenetic relationships, structures, conserved motifs, promoter regions, and expression patterns. Based on the phylogenetic relationship, the PhBBXs were divided into six groups. Analysis of the gene structures and conserved motifs further confirmed the closer relationships in each group. Based on the RNA-seq data, the transcript abundance of PhBBXs in different tissues were divided into two major groups. The analysis of cis-elements showed that many stress responsive elements appeared in the promoter region of most PhBBX genes. The stress response patterns of PhBBXs were detected under drought, salinity, cold and heat treatments. Based on the RNA-seq data, we found that 3 genes responded to drought, 8 genes responded to salt, 18 genes responded to cold, and 15 genes responded to heat. In conclusion, this study may facilitate further functional studies of BBXs in Petunia.

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Data availability

The datasets generated during and/or analyzed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.

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Acknowledgements

This research was supported by National Natural Science Foundation of China (31701953), and the Natural Science Foundation of Guangdong Province of China (2019A1515012168).

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Author notes

  1. Shiyun Wen and Yue Zhang contributed equally to this work.

Affiliations

  1. Guangdong Key Laboratory for Innovative Development and Utilization of Forest Plant Germplasm, College of Forestry and Landscape Architecture, South China Agricultural University, Guangzhou, 510642, China

    Shiyun Wen, Yixun Yu & Qian Wei

  2. Non-timber Forestry Research and Development Center, Chinese Academy of Forestry, Zhengzhou, 450003, China

    Yue Zhang

  3. Key Laboratory of Non-timber Forest Germplasm Enhancement & Utilization of National Forestry and Grassland Administration, Zhengzhou, 450003, China

    Yue Zhang

  4. College of Horticulture, South China Agricultural University, Guangzhou, 510642, China

    Ying Deng & Guoju Chen

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  1. Shiyun Wen
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  2. Yue Zhang
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  3. Ying Deng
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  4. Guoju Chen
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  5. Yixun Yu
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Contributions

QW designed experiments; SW and YD performed the experiments; YZ and SW analyzed the data and wrote the original draft paper; GC supervised the study; YY and QW revised the manuscript. All authors have read and agreed to the published version of the manuscript.

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Correspondence to Qian Wei.

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Supplementary file1 (DOCX 595 kb) Figure S1: The PhBBX protein motifs as derived by MEME analysis

Supplementary file2 (XLSX 8 kb) Table S1: Primer sequence for qPCR.

11033_2020_5678_MOESM3_ESM.xlsx

Supplementary file3 (XLSX 12 kb) Table S2: The amounts of the cis-elements that were identified in more than ten BBX genes in Petunia.

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Wen, S., Zhang, Y., Deng, Y. et al. Genomic identification and expression analysis of the BBX transcription factor gene family in Petunia hybrida. Mol Biol Rep 47, 6027–6041 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11033-020-05678-y

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11033-020-05678-y

Keywords

  • Petunia hybrida
  • BBX gene family
  • Gene expression
  • Abiotic stress