Comparative analysis of basic helix-loop-helix gene family among Brassica oleracea, Brassica rapa, and Brassica napus

Background The basic helix-loop-helix (bHLH) is the second largest gene family in the plant, some members play important roles in pistil development and response to drought, waterlogging, cold stress and salt stress. The bHLH gene family has been identified in many species, except for Brassica oleracea and B. napus thus far. This study aims to identify the bHLH family members in B. oleracea, B. rapa and B. napus, and elucidate the expression, duplication, phylogeny and evolution characters of them. Result A total of 268 bHLH genes in B. oleracea, 440 genes in B. napus, and 251 genes in B. rapa, including 21 new bHLH members, have been identified. Subsequently, the analyses of the phylogenetic trees, conserved motifs and gene structures showed that the members in the same subfamily were highly conserved. Most Ka/Ks values of homologous gene were < 1, which indicated that these genes suffered from strong purifying selection for retention. The retention rates of BrabHLH and BolbHLH genes were 51.6 and 55.1%, respectively. The comparative expression patterns between B. rapa and B. napus showed that they had similar expression patterns in the root and contrasting patterns in the stems, leaves, and reproductive tissues. In addition, there were 41 and 30 differential expression bHLH genes under the treatments of ABA and JA, respectively, and the number of down regulation genes was significantly more than up regulation genes. Conclusion In the present study, we identified and performed the comparative genomics analysis of bHLH gene family among B. oleracea, B. rapa and B. napus, and also investigated their diversity. The expression patterns between B. rapa and B. napus shows that they have the similar expression pattern in the root and opposite patterns in the stems, leaves, and reproduction tissues. Further analysis demonstrated that some bHLH gene members may play crucial roles under the abiotic and biotic stress conditions. This is the first to report on the bHLH gene family analysis in B. oleracea and B. napus, which can offer useful information on the functional analysis of the bHLH gene in plants.