Open Access

ARTICLE

Systematic Identification of Acer rubrum bZIP Transcription Factors and Their Potential Role in Anthocyanin Accumulation under Low Temperature with Light

Yue Zhao^1,2,#, Shah Faheem Afzal^2,#, Zhu Chen², Khan Arif Kamal^1,2, Yuzhi Fei², Xin Meng^1,2, Jie Ren^2,*, Hua Liu^1,*

1 School of Forestry & Landscape Architecture, Anhui Agricultural University, Hefei, 230036, China
2 Institute of Agricultural Engineering, Anhui Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Hefei, 230031, China

* Corresponding Authors: Jie Ren. Email: ; Hua Liu. Email:
# Authors contribute equally to this work

(This article belongs to the Special Issue: Recent Research Trends in Genetics, Genomics, and Physiology of Crop Plants)

Phyton-International Journal of Experimental Botany 2024, 93(11), 3109-3130. https://doi.org/10.32604/phyton.2024.056548

Received 25 July 2024; Accepted 30 October 2024; Issue published 30 November 2024

Abstract

Acer rubrum is an important garden color-leafed plant. Its leaves will turn red in autumn, which is of great ornamental value. The leaf color change in Acer rubrum is closely associated with anthocyanins accumulation. In anthocyanin synthesis and accumulation, various transcription factor families play significant regulatory roles, including the basic (region) leucine zipper (bZIP). However, there is no report on the systematic identification and functional analysis of the bZIPs in Acer rubrum. In this study, 137 bZIPs distributed on 29 chromosomes of Acer rubrum were identified and renamed according to their locations on the chromosomes. According to the constructed bZIP phylogenetic tree of Arabidopsis thaliana and Acer rubrum, bZIPs were divided into 13 groups. Two pairs of bZIP genes were involved in tandem duplication, and 106 segmental duplication gene pairs were found. Cis-acting elements in the promoter region of these bZIP genes were analyzed. The results of promoter analysis showed that many elements were closely related to light conditions, hormone responses, and abiotic stress factors. Among them, the cis-acting elements related to light response were most abundant and prominent. The results of anthocyanin determination showed that anthocyanin contents in the leaves of Acer rubrum increased significantly under low temperature with light. In addition, gene expression analysis showed that compared to other ArbZIPs, ArbZIP137, ArbZIP136, ArbZIP114, ArbZIP130, and ArbZIP14 showed a more pronounced increase in gene expression both under low- temperature conditions and under light conditions. From the correlation analysis, there was a high correlation between ArbZIPs and several anthocyanin-regulated transcription factors, including ArMYBs, ArbHLH and ArWD40s. Conclusively, the bZIP genes in Acer rubrum were identified and analyzed, providing a foundational basis for future studies on their function and significantly enhancing our understanding of the color mechanism of Acer rubrum.

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Supplementary Material

Supplementary Material File

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