Transcriptome-Wide Identification and Characterization of the Gene Family in L.

Jasmonate ZIM-domain (JAZ) proteins are the crucial transcriptional repressors in the jasmonic acid (JA) signaling process, and they play pervasive roles in plant development, defense, and plant specialized metabolism. Although numerous gene families have been discovered across several plants, our knowledge about the gene family remains limited in the economically and medicinally important Chinese herb L. Here, seven non-redundant genes named - were identified from our reported transcriptome data. Structural, amino acid composition, and phylogenetic analysis showed that seven McJAZ proteins contained the typical zinc-finger inflorescence meristem (ZIM) domain and JA-associated (Jas) domain as conserved as those in other plants, and they were clustered into four groups (A-D) and distributed into five subgroups (A1, A2, B1, B2, and D). Quantitative real-time PCR (qRT-PCR) analysis showed that seven genes displayed differential expression patterns in tissues, and preferentially expressed in flowers. Furthermore, the genes expression was differentially induced after Methyl jasmonate (MeJA) treatment, and their transcripts were variable and up- or down-regulated under abscisic acid (ABA), drought, and salt treatments. Subcellular localization analysis revealed that McJAZ proteins are localized in the nucleus or cytoplasm. Yeast two-hybrid (Y2H) assays demonstrated that McJAZ1-5 interacted with McCOI1a, a homolog of JA receptor AtCOI1, in a coronatine-dependent manner, and most of McJAZ proteins could also form homo- or heterodimers. This present study provides valuable basis for functional analysis and exploitation of the potential candidate genes for developing efficient strategies for genetic improvement of .