Genome-wide identification, phylogeny and expression analysis of the SBP-box gene family in maize (Zea mays)

Abstract The SQUAMOSA promoter binding protein (SBP)-box genes encode a kind of plant-specific transcription factors (TFs) and play important roles in the regulation of plant development. In this study, a genome-wide characterization of this family was conducted in maize ( Zea mays ). Thirty-one SBP-box genes were identified to be distributed in nine chromosomes and 16 of them were complementary to the mature ZmmiR156 sequences. All the Z. mays SBP ( ZmSBP ) genes were classified into two clusters with eight subgroups according to the phylogenetic analysis of proteins, which were consistent with the pattern of exon-intron structures. The phylogenetic tree of the ZmSBP, Oryza sativa SBP-like ( OsSPL ) and Arabidopsis thaliana SBP-like ( AtSPL ) genes were constructed and all the SBP-box genes were divided into eight groups, which was the same as the classification of ZmSBP genes. The comparision of the expression profiles of all SBP-box genes in these three species indicated that most orthologous genes had similar expression patterns. The results from this study provided a basic understanding of the ZmSBP genes and might facilitate future researches for elucidating the SBP-box genes function in maize.