Genome-wide characterization of the soybean DOMAIN OF UNKNOWN FUNCTION 679 membrane protein gene family highlights their potential involvement in growth and stress response.

The (DUF679 membrane proteins) family is a plant-specific gene family that encodes membrane proteins. The DMP family genes are suggested to be involved in various programmed cell death processes and gamete fusion during double fertilization in However, their functional relevance in other crops remains unknown. This study identified 14 genes from the DMP family in soybean () and characterized their physiochemical properties, subcellular location, gene structure, and promoter regions using bioinformatics tools. Additionally, their tissue-specific and stress-responsive expressions were analyzed using publicly available transcriptome data. Phylogenetic analysis of 198 s from monocots and dicots revealed six clades, with clade-I encoding senescence-related orthologues and clade-II including pollen-specific orthologues. The largest clade, clade-III, predominantly included monocot s, while monocot- and dicot-specific s were assembled in clade-IV and clade-VI, respectively. Evolutionary analysis suggests that soybean s underwent purifying selection during evolution. Using 68 transcriptome datasets, expression profiling revealed expression in diverse tissues and distinct responses to abiotic and biotic stresses. The genes and showed pistil-abundant expression by qPCR, suggesting they could be potential targets for female organ-mediated haploid induction. Furthermore, cis-acting regulatory elements primarily related to stress-, hormone-, and light-induced pathways regulate s, which is consistent with their divergent expression and suggests involvement in growth and stress responses. Overall, our study provides a comprehensive report on the soybean family and a framework for further biological functional analysis of genes in soybean or other crops.