Abstract
As important plant-specific transcription factors, GRAS family members play significant roles in plant development and diverse stress responses. The identification of GRAS genes in many species has been explored; however, little is known about the evolutionary origin of GRAS genes of Brassica napus (BnGRAS genes or BnGRASs) Brassica napus (BnGRAS genes or BnGRASs) in the Brassica genus. Here, 56, 53 and 96 GRAS genes were identified in Brassica rapa, Brassica oleracea, and B. napus, respectively, which were classified into 13 subfamilies and 17 orthologous groups by phylogenetic analysis. Duplication analysis showed that the Brassica-α whole genome triplication event contributed more to the expansion of BnGRAS genes than allopolyploidization and tandem duplication. Moreover, all Brassica GRAS genes were estimated to have undergone purifying selection during their evolution. Additionally, structural feature and expression profile analyses indicated that GRAS genes were conserved in sequence characters within the same subfamily, suggesting similar functions in plant development and biotic and abiotic stress responses. Finally, the evolutionary origin of BnGRASs in the Brassica genus was proposed. Taken together, this study not only deduces the evolutionary origin of BnGRASs in the Brassica genus but also provides important candidate BnGRAS genes for further functional analysis.
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Funding
This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (U1904106), the Provincial Natural Science Foundation of Henan (22100002), the Fostering Project for Basic Research of Zhengzhou University (JC21310015), the Postdoctoral Research Grant in Henan Province (202003003) and Youth Innovation Project of Key Discipline of Zhengzhou University (XKZDQN202002).
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BT and GS conceived and designed the project. ZX, ZT and FW wrote the manuscript. ZX, ZT and FW carried out the bioinformatics analysis. ZT and FW conducted the experiments. XW and GC supervised the project. WC and GC performed the date analysis. ZT, ZX, FW and GS revised the manuscript. All authors have read and agreed to the published version of the manuscript.
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**e, Z., Tian, Z., Wei, F. et al. Genome-wide bioinformatics analysis reveals the evolutionary origin of BnGRAS genes in the Brassica genus. Genet Resour Crop Evol 70, 587–606 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10722-022-01448-w
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10722-022-01448-w