Genome-Wide Analysis of the Heat Shock Transcription Factor Gene Family inBrassica juncea: Structure, Evolution, and Expression Profiles

Heat shock transcription factor (HSF) is ubiquitous in the whole biological world and plays an important role in regulating growth and development and responses to environment stress. In this study, a total of 60 HSF transcription factors inBrassica junceagenome were identified and analyzed. Phylogenetic analysis showed that HSF genes were divided into three groups namely: A, B, and C, of which group A was further divided into nine subgroups (A1-A9). The analysis of gene structure and conserved motifs showed that some homologous genes are highly conserved. There was strong conservative microcollinearity amongBrassica rapa,B. juncea, andBrassica oleracea, which provides a basis for studying the replication of gene families. Moreover, the results revealed that the promoter regions ofBjuHSFgenes were rich incis-elements related to growth and development, hormone signal, and stress response. The prediction of protein interaction results showed that HSFs could interact with multiple transcription factors and proteins in the genome, while functional annotation revealed thatBjuHSFgenes were involved in many biological processes. The expression patterns ofBjuHSFgenes were analyzed by qPCR, and the results showed that these genes were closely linked to stress response, hormones, and development process. These results are a foundation for further analysis of the regulation mechanism of HSF gene family.