Abstract

Basic leucine zipper (bZIP) transcription factors (TFs) are ubiquitous in eukaryotes. Members of this family play significant roles in the regulation of plant growth, signal transduction, and various stresses. To date, bZIP TFs have been extensively studied in various plants, but there is little information about them inPinus massonianaLamb. In this study, 55 bZIP TFs were identified based on data from four differentP. massonianatranscriptomes, and a systematic analysis was performed. According to the phylogenetic results,P. massonianabZIP TFs were divided into 11 groups. Each bZIP protein contained a highly conserved bZIP domain, and the numbers and types of motifs were similar in the same group. The PmbZIPs were nuclear localization proteins. Based on the pine wood nematode inoculation transcriptome, the transcriptional profiles revealed that 25PmbZIPgenes could respond to pine wood nematodes at different levels. GenesPmbZIP3, PmbZIP4, PmbZIP8, PmbZIP20,andPmbZIP23were selected to be upregulated in the process of inoculation with pine wood nematodes. These five genes had different expression levels in different tissues and were responsive to the related treatment conditions. Transcriptional activity analysis showed that PmbZIP3 and PmbZIP8 were transcriptional activators; PmbZIP4, PmbZIP20 and PmbZIP23 were transcriptional repressors. These findings provide preliminary information on PmbZIP TFs, which is helpful for further study of other physiological functions of bZIP TFs inP. massoniana.Keywords:Pinus massoniana;bZIP;stress response;hormone;expression pattern