biologia plantarum

Biologia plantarum 67:88-99, 2023 | DOI: 10.32615/bp.2023.003

Identification of AP2/ERF gene family of Salicaceae and their response to salt stress, abscisic acid, and gibberellic acid in Populus euphratica seeds

X.L. HAN¹, C. QIU¹, J.H. SUN¹, J.D. XU³, X. ZHANG¹, J.T. ZHAI¹, S.H. ZHANG¹, Z.H. WU^{2, *}, Z.J. LI^{1, *}

¹ College of Life Sciences, Tarim University/Key Laboratory of Protection and Utilization of Biological Resources in Tarim Basin, Xinjiang Production & Construction Corps/Research Center of Populus euphratica, Alar 843300, Xinjiang, P.R. China

² College of Chemistry and Life Sciences, Zhejiang Normal University, Jinhua 321004, Zhejiang, P.R. China

³ Hubei Provincial Key Laboratory for Protection and Application of Special Plant Germplasm in Wuling Area of China, College of Life Sciences, South Central University for Nationalities, Wuhan 430040, P.R. China

Populus euphratica belongs to Salicaceae family and grows in extreme desert environments. At present, the identification of the AP2/ERF gene family of transcription factors in Salicaceae is rare, and the role of the AP2/ERF gene family in P. euphratica under salt stress and exogenous hormones has not been reported. In this study, 197, 210, 231, 192, and 147 AP2/ERF genes were identified in P. euphratica, Populus trichocarpa, Populus deltoides, Salix sinopurpurea, and Arabidopsis thaliana, respectively. The 197 AP2/ERF gene family members of P. euphratica were divided into five subfamilies, namely, AP2 (35), RAV (5), ERF (96), DREB (65), and Soloist (1), by sequence alignment and phylogenetic analysis. In addition, these genes were scattered across 19 chromosomes. The detection of 10 motifs in the P. euphratica AP2/ERF gene family revealed that motif-8 and motif-9 only appeared in the ERF subfamily and DREB subfamily, respectively. Transcriptome data showed that PeAP2/ERF genes had different expression patterns under salt stress, abscisic acid (ABA) and gibberellic acid (GA₃) treatments, suggesting that the genes PeERF002, PeERF037, PeERF082, PeERF090, and PeAP2-14 may play important roles under salt stress and exogenous hormone treatments. This study provides a reference for the functional study of the PeAP2/ERF gene, and it also lays a foundation for the breeding strategy to improve the salt tolerance of P. euphratica.

Keywords: abscisic acid, AP2/ERF, gene expression, gibberellic acid, Populus euphratica, Salicaceae, salt stress.

Received: March 31, 2022; Revised: February 21, 2023; Accepted: March 6, 2023; Published online: May 25, 2023  Show citation