AUTHOR=Yang Ting , Li Cheng , Zhang Hui , Wang Jingyu , Xie Xiaofang , Wen Yongxian 

TITLE=Genome-wide identification and expression analysis of the GRAS transcription in eggplant (Solanum melongena L.)

JOURNAL=Frontiers in Genetics

VOLUME=13

YEAR=2022

URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/genetics/articles/10.3389/fgene.2022.932731

DOI=10.3389/fgene.2022.932731

ISSN=1664-8021

ABSTRACT=<p>GRAS proteins are plant-specific transcription factors and play important roles in plant growth, development, and stress responses. In this study, a total of 48 <italic>GRAS</italic> genes in the eggplant (<italic>S. melongena</italic>) genome were identified. These genes were distributed on 11 chromosomes unevenly, with amino acid lengths ranging from 417 to 841 aa. A total of 48 GRAS proteins were divided into 13 subgroups based on the maximum likelihood (ML) model. The gene structure showed that 60.42% (29/48) of <italic>SmGRAS</italic>s did not contain any introns. Nine pairs of <italic>SmGRAS</italic> appeared to have a collinear relationship, and all of them belonged to segmental duplication. Four types of cis-acting elements, namely, light response, growth and development, hormone response, and stress response, were identified by a cis-acting element predictive analysis. The expression pattern analysis based on the RNA-seq data of eggplant indicated that <italic>SmGRAS</italic>s were expressed differently in various tissues and responded specifically to cold stress. In addition, five out of ten selected <italic>SmGRAS</italic>s (<italic>SmGRAS2/28/32/41/44</italic>) were upregulated under cold stress. These results provided a theoretical basis for further functional study of <italic>GRAS</italic> genes in eggplant.</p>