Abstract

The basic leucine zipper (bZIP) family of transcription factors (TFs) regulate diverse phenomena during plant growth and development and are involved in stress responses and hormone signaling. However, only a fewbZIPshave been functionally characterized. In this paper, 54 maizebZIPgenes were screened from previously published drought and rewatering transcriptomes. These genes were divided into nine groups in a phylogenetic analysis, supported by motif and intron/exon analyses. The 54 genes were unevenly distributed on 10 chromosomes and contained 18 segmental duplications, suggesting that segmental duplication events have contributed to the expansion of the maizebZIPfamily. Spatio-temporal expression analyses showed thatbZIPgenes are widely expressed during maize development. We identified 10 coreZmbZIPsinvolved in protein transport, transcriptional regulation, and cellular metabolism by principal component analysis, gene co-expression network analysis, and Gene Ontology enrichment analysis. In addition, 15 potential stress-responsive ZmbZIPs were identified by expression analyses. Localization analyses showed thatZmbZIP17,-33,-42, and-45are nuclear proteins. These results provide the basis for future functional genomic studies onbZIPTFs in maize and identify candidate genes with potential applications in breeding/genetic engineering for increased stress resistance. These data represent a high-quality molecular resource for selecting resistant breeding materials.Keywords:maize;basic leucine zipper;transcriptome analysis;duplication;abiotic stress;subcellular localization