Genome-Wide Characterization and Expression Analysis of Transcription Factor Families in Desert Moss Syntrichia caninervis under Abiotic Stresses

Abstract

Transcription factor (TF) families play important roles in plant stress responses. S. caninervis is a new model moss for plant desiccation tolerance studies. Here, we report a high-confidence identification and characterization of 591 TFs representing 52 families that covered all chromosomes in S. caninervis. GO term and KEGG pathway analysis showed that TFs were involved in the regulation of transcription, DNA-templated, gene expression, binding activities, plant hormone signal transduction, and circadian rhythm. A number of TF promoter regions have a mixture of various hormones-related cis-regulatory elements. AP2/ERF, bHLH, MYB, and C2H2-zinc finger TFs were the overrepresented TF families in S. caninervis, and the detailed classification of each family is performed based on structural features. Transcriptome analysis revealed the transcript abundances of some ScAP2/ERF, bHLH, MYB, and C2H2 genes were accumulated in the treated S. caninervis under cold, dehydration, and rehydration stresses. The RT-qPCR results strongly agreed with RNA-seq analysis, indicating these TFs might play a key role in S. caninervis response to abiotic stress. Our comparative TF characterization and classification provide the foundations for functional investigations of the dominant TF genes involved in S. caninervis stress response, as well as excellent stress tolerance gene resources for plant stress resistance breeding.