Abstract
BackgroundTranscription factors (TFs) are essential regulators of growth and development in eukaryotes. Basic-helix-loop-helix (bHLHs) is one of the most significant TFs families involved in several critical regulatory functions. Cryptochrome-interacting bHLH (CIB) and cryptochromes form an extensive regulatory network to mediate a plethora of pathways. Although bHLHs regulate critical biological processes in plants, the information about pineapple bHLHs remains unexplored.ResultsHere, we identified a total of 121 bHLH proteins in the pineapple genome. The identified genes were renamed based on the ascending order of their gene ID and classified into 18 subgroups by phylogenetic analysis. We found that bHLH genes are expressed in different organs and stages of pineapple development. Furthermore, by the ectopic expression of AcCIB2 in Arabidopsis and complementation of Atcib2 mutant, we verified the involvement of AcCIB2 in photomorphogenesis and abiotic stress response.ConclusionsOur findings revealed that AcCIB2 plays an essential role in flowering time regulation and abiotic stress response. The present study provides additional insights into the current knowledge of bHLH genes and suggests their potential role in various biological processes during pineapple development.
Highlights
Transcription factors (TFs) are essential regulators of growth and development in eukaryotes
Identification and characterization of pineapple bHLH genes We identified 121 AcbHLH proteins in pineapple and named them based on the ascending order of their gene ID
We further characterized the pineapple bHLH proteins based on their molecular weight, isoelectric point, amino acid, and open reading frame (ORF) length, respectively (Additional Table S1)
Summary
Transcription factors (TFs) are essential regulators of growth and development in eukaryotes. TFs could repress or activate the expression of their target genes, resulting in the regulation of the development and physiological response. TFs could repress or activate the target gene expression resulting in the regulation of development and response [1, 2]. BHLH TFs regulate their target after forming homo or heterodimers by interacting with bHLHs and other regulatory proteins [7, 8]. BHLHs play crucial roles in gene expression during regulatory and developmental processes, including transcriptional regulation, chromosome segregation, general transcriptional enhancement, hormonal signaling, wounding, response to environmental cues, metabolism regulation, flower and fruit development [3, 9,10,11,12]
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