Abstract:
Licorice, one of the most commonly used medicinal materials in China, grows mainly in arid and semi-arid regions and has important economic and ecological values. Basic leucine zipper (bZIP) transcription factors in plants play an important role in regulating biological or abiotic stress responses, growth, and secondary metabolite synthesis. bZIP transcription factors in the published whole genome database of
Glycyrrhiza uralensis were identified using bZIP sequences found in
Arabidopsis thaliana genome as reference, and ABA-dependent bZIP genes were identified by using Illumina high-throughput sequencing. The physical and chemical properties, structure of the encoded proteins, and the gene expression patterns with exogenous ABA stress were analyzed. A total of 69 bZIP transcription factor genes were identified in
G. uralensis, named
Gubzip1-69, and they were divided into 10 subfamilies (A-I and S) according to their similarity to bZIPs of
A. thaliana. By calculating the relative expression levels of the 69
GubZIPs genes under different concentrations of exogenous ABA stress, genes that may be involved in the regulation of ABA signaling pathways were identified, namely
GubZIP1,
GubZIP5,
GubZIP8,
GubZIP30,
GubZIP33 and
GubZIP56. The results of expression pattern analysis of these
GubZIPs genes under exogenous ABA stress showed that the expression pattern of
GubZIPs genes changed significantly with 50 mg·L
-1 ABA. The relative expression levels of these genes decreased 3 h after treatment, and gradually increased 6 h after treatment. Except for
GubZIP8, the relative expression levels of these genes were significantly increased after 12 h. Further research on the function of bZIP transcription factors of
G. uralensis and elucidating their regulatory mechanisms should be of interest and will provide a scientific basis for cultivating high-quality cultivars of
G. uralensis through molecular breeding methods.