ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Plant Sci.
Sec. Plant Abiotic Stress
Volume 16 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fpls.2025.1602440
This article is part of the Research TopicPlant Stress Resistance: Unraveling the Mechanisms and Strategies for ResilienceView all 6 articles
Genome-wide characterization and expression analysis of LBD transcription factors in Ziziphus jujuba var. spinosa: putative roles in tissue development and abiotic stress adaptation
Provisionally accepted
- 1Shandong Provincial Key Laboratory of Water and Soil Conservation and Environmental Protection, College of Resources and Environment, Linyi University, Linyi, China
- 2Shandong Provincial Forestry Protection and Development Service Center, Jinan, China
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The plant-specific Lateral Organ Boundaries Domain (LBD) transcription factors (TFs) are critical regulators of the expression of genes related to tissue development and stress responses. Sour jujube (Ziziphus jujuba var. spinosa), a stress-tolerant rootstock for jujube cultivation, remains understudied in terms of its LBD gene family. In this study, 37 ZjLBD genes were identified and phylogenetically classified into two classes and six subgroups based on evolutionary relationships with Arabidopsis and poplar. These genes were unevenly distributed across 11 chromosomes, with 15 segmental duplication events detected. Upstream TFs of ZjLBDs were predicted and grouped into six interactive networks, revealing that the functions of ZjLBDs may be enriched in stress response, hormone signaling, and tissue development. RNA-seq data demonstrated tissue-specific expression patterns of ZjLBDs, with limited genes highly expressed in fruit. The ZjLBD23 may regulate the development of flowers and white mature fruits, while ZjLBD11, ZjLBD13, ZjLBD22 and ZjLBD28 may be involved in lateral root formation. Analysis of the cis-acting elements, homology relationships and abiotic stress-induced expression levels suggested functional divergence: ZjLBD13, ZjLBD19 and ZjLBD28 may contribute to extreme cold resistance, ZjLBD11, ZjLBD14, ZjLBD33 and ZjLBD35 may be associated with drought tolerance, and ZjLBD9, ZjLBD13 and ZjLBD22 with salt stress adaptation. This study provides critical insights into the biological roles of ZjLBDs and lays a foundation for breeding sour jujube varieties with enhanced stress resilience.
Keywords: Genome-wide analysis, Expression patterns, stress response, LBD, Sour jujube
Received: 29 Mar 2025; Accepted: 28 Apr 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Li, Zhang, Zhou, Wang, Zhao and Geng. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence:
Yao Zhao, Shandong Provincial Key Laboratory of Water and Soil Conservation and Environmental Protection, College of Resources and Environment, Linyi University, Linyi, China
Jibiao Geng, Shandong Provincial Key Laboratory of Water and Soil Conservation and Environmental Protection, College of Resources and Environment, Linyi University, Linyi, China
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