ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Plant Sci.
Sec. Plant Genetics, Epigenetics and Chromosome Biology
This article is part of the Research TopicRegulatory Layers Shaping Plant Adaptation: Epigenetics, Non-Coding RNAs and BeyondView all 3 articles
Characterization of histone acetyltransferase and histone deacetylase genes under abiotic and hormone stresses in soybean
Provisionally accepted
- 1Dezhou University, Dezhou, China
- 2Jiangsu Vocational College of Agriculture and Forestry, Jurong, China
- 3Yangzhou University Agricultural College, Yangzhou, China
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Histone acetyltransferases (HATs) and histone deacetylases (HDACs) dynamically regulate histone acetylation and are involved in the process of plant growth and development and stress responses. Here, we identified 12 GmHATs and 28 GmHDACs in the soybean genome and systematically analyzed their phylogenetic relationships, structural features, expression profiles, and stress-induced acetylation dynamics. Cis-element analysis indicates that they may participate in hormone and stress signaling pathways. Transcriptome analysis revealed tissue-specific expression patterns. RT-qPCR results indicated that GmHATs and GmHDACs exhibited varying degrees of induced expression under salt and drought stress, particularly the GmHDA16 and GmHDT2 genes. Notably, under salt stress, GmHDT2 expression increased 61-fold. Western blotting further demonstrated that salt and drought treatments significantly reduced H3K18ac and H4K8ac levels. This reduction was negatively correlated with the upregulation of HD2 subfamily genes, suggesting that specific HDACs mediate stress responses through histone deacetylation. Additionally, these genes exhibit distinct responses to various plant hormones. This study provides new insights into the epigenetic regulation of abiotic stress in soybean, offering valuable genetic resources for future stress-resistant breeding programs.
Keywords: histone acetyltransferase, Histone deacetylase, Hormone treatment, Soybean, stress
Received: 25 Nov 2025; Accepted: 10 Feb 2026.
Copyright: © 2026 Liu, Sun, Guo, Liu, Duan, Zhang, Xue, WEI and Gong. 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:
Kai Liu
Zhiyun Gong
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