Open Access

ARTICLE

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 Authors: Liuyan Yang. Email: ; Yongchun Zhang. Email:

Phyton-International Journal of Experimental Botany 2026, 95(9), 6 https://doi.org/10.32604/phyton.2026.086524

Received 01 June 2026; Accepted 19 August 2026; Issue published 24 September 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.

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Keywords

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Supplementary Material

Supplementary Material File

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