Kai Zhao1, Song Chen1, Wenjing Yao1,2, Zihan Cheng1, Boru Zhou3, Tingbo Jiang4. 1. State Key Laboratory of Tree Genetics and Breeding, Northeast Forestry University, 51 Hexing Road, Harbin, 150040, China. 2. Co-Innovation Center for Sustainable Forestry in Southern China/Bamboo Research Institute, Nanjing Forestry University, 159 Longpan Road, Nanjing, 210037, China. 3. State Key Laboratory of Tree Genetics and Breeding, Northeast Forestry University, 51 Hexing Road, Harbin, 150040, China. boruzhou@yahoo.com. 4. State Key Laboratory of Tree Genetics and Breeding, Northeast Forestry University, 51 Hexing Road, Harbin, 150040, China. tbjiang@yahoo.com.
Abstract
BACKGROUND: The bZIP gene family, which is widely present in plants, participates in varied biological processes including growth and development and stress responses. How do the genes regulate such biological processes? Systems biology is powerful for mechanistic understanding of gene functions. However, such studies have not yet been reported in poplar. RESULTS: In this study, we identified 86 poplar bZIP transcription factors and described their conserved domains. According to the results of phylogenetic tree, we divided these members into 12 groups with specific gene structures and motif compositions. The corresponding genes that harbor a large number of segmental duplication events are unevenly distributed on the 17 poplar chromosomes. In addition, we further examined collinearity between these genes and the related genes from six other species. Evidence from transcriptomic data indicated that the bZIP genes in poplar displayed different expression patterns in roots, stems, and leaves. Furthermore, we identified 45 bZIP genes that respond to salt stress in the three tissues. We performed co-expression analysis on the representative genes, followed by gene set enrichment analysis. The results demonstrated that tissue differentially expressed genes, especially the co-expressing genes, are mainly involved in secondary metabolic and secondary metabolite biosynthetic processes. However, salt stress responsive genes and their co-expressing genes mainly participate in the regulation of metal ion transport, and methionine biosynthetic. CONCLUSIONS: Using comparative genomics and systems biology approaches, we, for the first time, systematically explore the structures and functions of the bZIP gene family in poplar. It appears that the bZIP gene family plays significant roles in regulation of poplar development and growth and salt stress responses through differential gene networks or biological processes. These findings provide the foundation for genetic breeding by engineering target regulators and corresponding gene networks into poplar lines.
BACKGROUND: The bZIP gene family, which is widely present in plants, participates in varied biological processes including growth and development and stress responses. How do the genes regulate such biological processes? Systems biology is powerful for mechanistic understanding of gene functions. However, such studies have not yet been reported in poplar. RESULTS: In this study, we identified 86 poplar bZIP transcription factors and described their conserved domains. According to the results of phylogenetic tree, we divided these members into 12 groups with specific gene structures and motif compositions. The corresponding genes that harbor a large number of segmental duplication events are unevenly distributed on the 17 poplar chromosomes. In addition, we further examined collinearity between these genes and the related genes from six other species. Evidence from transcriptomic data indicated that the bZIP genes in poplar displayed different expression patterns in roots, stems, and leaves. Furthermore, we identified 45 bZIP genes that respond to salt stress in the three tissues. We performed co-expression analysis on the representative genes, followed by gene set enrichment analysis. The results demonstrated that tissue differentially expressed genes, especially the co-expressing genes, are mainly involved in secondary metabolic and secondary metabolite biosynthetic processes. However, salt stress responsive genes and their co-expressing genes mainly participate in the regulation of metal ion transport, and methionine biosynthetic. CONCLUSIONS: Using comparative genomics and systems biology approaches, we, for the first time, systematically explore the structures and functions of the bZIP gene family in poplar. It appears that the bZIP gene family plays significant roles in regulation of poplar development and growth and salt stress responses through differential gene networks or biological processes. These findings provide the foundation for genetic breeding by engineering target regulators and corresponding gene networks into poplar lines.
Authors: Christoph Weiste; Lorenzo Pedrotti; Jebasingh Selvanayagam; Prathibha Muralidhara; Christian Fröschel; Ondřej Novák; Karin Ljung; Johannes Hanson; Wolfgang Dröge-Laser Journal: PLoS Genet Date: 2017-02-03 Impact factor: 5.917
Authors: Sara El-Gebali; Jaina Mistry; Alex Bateman; Sean R Eddy; Aurélien Luciani; Simon C Potter; Matloob Qureshi; Lorna J Richardson; Gustavo A Salazar; Alfredo Smart; Erik L L Sonnhammer; Layla Hirsh; Lisanna Paladin; Damiano Piovesan; Silvio C E Tosatto; Robert D Finn Journal: Nucleic Acids Res Date: 2019-01-08 Impact factor: 16.971