Genome-Wide Identification of bZIP Gene Family in Lilium davidii var. unicolor and Expression Analysis during Dormancy Release and Regeneration
Jiaji Zhang, Yunyao Yang, Minmin Chen, Xin Han, Gongping Nie, Xiyan Chen, Lin Zhou, Liuyan Yang*, Yongchun Zhang*
Forest & Fruit Tree Institute, Shanghai Academy of Agricultural Science, Shanghai, China
* Corresponding Author: Liuyan Yang. Email: 
; Yongchun Zhang. Email: 
Phyton-International Journal of Experimental Botany https://doi.org/10.32604/phyton.2026.086524
Received 01 June 2026; Accepted 19 August 2026; Published online 24 August 2026
Abstract
The basic leucine zipper (bZIP) transcription factors constitute one of the largest and most functionally diverse gene families in plants, playing central roles in growth, development, and stress adaptation. However, systematic information on this family remains limited in
Lilium davidii var.
unicolor, an economically important ornamental and edible bulb crop with a remarkably large and complex genome. In this study, we conducted a genome-wide survey and identified 64
LdbZIP genes. Phylogenetic analysis with
Arabidopsis and rice assigned the LdbZIPs to 11 of the 13 recognized subfamilies, with no member of subfamily IV or VIII detected. The encoded proteins exhibited obvious heterogeneity in physicochemical properties. Most LdbZIP proteins were predicted to be hydrophilic and structurally flexible, yet all were predicted to have nuclear localization, whereas several members also showed possible endoplasmic reticulum or cytoplasmic localization. Fifty-four segmentally duplicated pairs and one tandemly duplicated pair were identified, and all duplicated pairs had Ka/Ks ratios below 1. Promoter regions of
LdbZIPs were contained a wide variety of
cis-regulatory elements associated with light, phytohormone, and stress responses, suggesting broad involvement in environmental adaptation. Expression profiling uncovered significant spatial variations across plant tissues. Crucially, transcriptomic and relative expression analyses demonstrated a dynamic reprogramming of
LdbZIP genes during dormancy release and regeneration. Together, these results provide a systematic overview of the structural features, evolutionary divergence, and expression characteristics of the
LdbZIP gene family in
L. davidii var.
unicolor, thereby establishing a foundation for future functional characterization of candidate genes involved in dormancy release and asexual regeneration.
Keywords
Lilium davidii var.
unicolor; bZIP; gene family; dormancy release; regeneration
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