Identification of the AP2/ERF transcription factor family of and its expression correlation with drought stress.

In this study, through analysis of the genome of () 228 genes were identified and classified into 5 groups AP2 (47 genes), ERF (108 genes), RAV (6 genes), DREB (64 genes), and soloist (3 genes). According to the AP2/ERF classification of , the AP2/ERF proteins were subdivided into 15 groups. The gene structure and motifs of each group of AP2/ERF in were highly similar, which confirmed the conservation of genes. The genes were unevenly distributed on chromosomes, and a total of four pairs of tandem repeats, and 84 co-linear gene pairs were found, so the genes expanded in a fragment replication manner, and dominated by pure selection during evolution. By analyzing the transcriptome data of under different drought stress conditions, 87 genes with differential expression were obtained, of which 10 genes with highly significant differences were further analyzed and screened for qRT-PCR validation. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first report on the gene of , and the bioinformatics analysis and experimental validation provided valuable information about them, which is of great significance for further research on the molecular mechanisms of in response to drought stress.