Abstract
Hypericum perforatum is a well-known medicinal herb currently used as a remedy for depression as it contains many high levels of secondary metabolites. The ethylene response factor (ERF) family encodes transcriptional regulators with multiple functions that play a vital role in the diverse developmental and physiological processes of plants, which can protect plants from various stresses by regulating the expression of genes. Although the function of several ERF genes from other plants has been further confirmed, H. perforatum is the first sequenced species in Malpighiales, and no information regarding the ERFs has been reported thus far. In this study, a total of 101 ERF genes were identified from H. perforatum. A systematic and thorough bioinformatic analysis of the ERF family was performed using the genomic database of H. perforatum. According to the phylogenetic tree analysis, HpERFs were further classified into 11 subfamilies. Gene ontology (GO) analysis suggested that most of the HpERFs likely participate in the biological processes of plants. The cis-elements were mainly divided into five categories, associated with the regulation of gene transcription, response to various stresses, and plant development. Further analysis of the expression patterns showed that the stress-responsive HpERFs responded to different treatments. This work systematically analyzed HpERFs using the genome sequences of H. perforatum. Our results provide a theoretical basis for further investigation of the function of stress-related ERFs in H. perforatum.
Highlights
Hypericum perforatum is a perennial indigenous herb of the Hypericum genus that contains multiple medical compositions [1,2]
A total of 101 presumed ethylene response factor (ERF) genes were searched from the H. perforatum genomic databases using the BLASTP program with 122 AtERF proteins as queries
The prediction of subcellular localization showed that 85 HpERF proteins lie in the nuclear region, twelve HpERF proteins were involved in the chloroplast region, two HpERF proteins (HpERF15 and HpERF40) were located in the mitochondrial region, only one HpERF protein (HpERF93) was located in the cytoplasmic region, and one HpERF protein (HpERF53) was involved in the extracellular region (Table S1)
Summary
Hypericum perforatum is a perennial indigenous herb of the Hypericum genus that contains multiple medical compositions [1,2]. Many pharmaceutical companies have a keen interest in this plant due to its medicinal properties, in particular the presence of valuable secondary metabolites that are beneficial for the treatment of mild to moderate depression, cancer, and viral diseases [3,4,5]. Many kinds of transcription factor families could control the expression of various key enzyme genes that are related to the biosynthetic pathways of the main secondary metabolites, which indirectly affect the contents in plants. Various abiotic stresses and hormone treatments could seriously regulate the process of growth and development in plants [8,9]. To cope with the environmental changes associated with abiotic stresses, a variety of signaling pathways are activated or inhibited in plants. The expression of stress-related genes is related to the coordinated regulation of diverse metabolic pathways, which is essential for plants to respond to various stresses [10]
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