Discovery, phylogeny and expression patterns of AP2-like genes in maize.

A transcription factor (TF) is a protein that binds to specific DNA sequences and thereby controls transcription. A large number of TFs are found in plants. The AP2/ERF family of TFs contain the AP2 DNA-binding domain, which play important roles in transcriptional regulation in plant life. To understand the AP2/ERF family TFs of maize, the discovery, phylogeny and expression pattern analysis of AP2-like genes from maize were described. A total of 167 AP2-like genes were identified by in silico cloning using the amino acid sequence of AP2/ERF family TFs from Arabidopsis thaliana as the probe. The maize AP2-like genes identified were orthologous to those TFs in Arabidopsis. The AP2/ERF TFs from maize were classified into four subfamilies (DREB, ERF, AP2 and RAV) and a Soloist. Using the EST information of maize as a source of expression data, those AP2-like genes from maize were detected in different plant tissues. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]