Genome-wide identification and comparative analysis of HSF genes among Solanaceae members

Abstract

HSF family is one of the important transcription factor family involved in heat stress and several other abiotic stresses like drought, cold etc. HSF regulates expression of HSPs and controls high-temperature stress, damage, and biological process. In this study, we identified the HSF genes in different members of Solanaceae family including potato, tomato, brinjal and capsicum. We found and compared their gene structure, evolutionary relationship, motif, domains, duplication events and their time of divergence with the help of different software like MEGA, BLAST, GSDS, PAL2NAL, iTOL, and Circos. In potato, tomato, capsicum and brinjal27, 26, 25 and 23 genes were identified from the Plant Transcription Factor database. In terms of Gene structure of potato as well as tomato, most of the genes retained only 1 intron except 2 genes i.e., one in potato and one in tomato suggesting the gain of intron during the evolutionary process. Comparative phylogenetic analysis of HSF genes revealed 2 major groups with several orthologous and paralogous genes. Time of divergence was also examined to understand evolutionary concepts. Segmental duplications were found to be involved in family expansion and evolution. Our comparative study may be helpful in the understanding of HSF genes in Solanaceae family and evolutionary pathways of HSFs in potato and tomato.