ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Plant Sci.
Sec. Plant Bioinformatics
Comparative analysis of the GATA Transcription Factors in Seven Ipomoea Species
Provisionally accepted
- Hebei Normal University of Science and Technology, Qinhuangdao, China
Select one of your emails
You have multiple emails registered with Frontiers:
Notify me on publication
Please enter your email address:
If you already have an account, please login
You don't have a Frontiers account ? You can register here
The GATA transcription factors regulate plant growth, development, and stress responses, but their information in sweetpotato and related Ipomoea species remain poorly understood. Through analytical methods of bioinformatics, this study identified 410 GATA genes across seven sequenced Ipomoea species: sweetpotato (158), I. trifida (54), I. triloba (62), I. nil (39), I. purpurea (32), I. cairica (32), and I. aquatica (33). Phylogenetic analysis revealed that these GATA genes clustered into four distinct subfamilies (I-IV). Chromosomal mapping showed an uneven distribution pattern, with complete absence of GATA genes on certain chromosomes in each species. Duplication analysis indicated differential expansion mechanisms: tandem duplications primarily drove GATA gene expansion in I. triloba, I. trifida, and I. nil, whereas segmental duplications were predominant in sweetpotato and I. cairica. Promoter analysis identified multiple stress-responsive cis-regulatory elements, including ABRE, ARE, CGTCA-motif, GC-motif, LTR, MBS, TCA-element, TC-rich repeats, and TGACG-motif. Expression profiling under various stresses (salt, drought, Ceratocystis fimbriata and Ditylenchus destructor) detected 29-60 differentially expressed GATA genes (DEGs). Three representative DEGs (IbGATA33, IbGATA38, and IbGATA126) were validated by qRT-PCR, with results corroborating the transcriptome data. This study may contribute to further understanding of the evolution and function of GATA genes among the Ipomoea species, including sweetpotato.
Keywords: Ipomoea species, GATA genes, phylogenetic analysis, chromosome location, duplication analysis, cis-regulatory elements, Expression patterns, Stresses response
Received: 28 Sep 2025; Accepted: 03 Nov 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Si, Guo, Ji, Men and Wang. 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: Zengzhi Si, sizengzhi@163.com
Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.