Identification and expression analysis of StGRAS gene family in potato (Solanum tuberosum L.)

The GRAS gene family is a class of plant-specific transcription factors which play pivotal roles in the regulation of plant growth and development. At present, the GRAS gene family has been completely identified in Arabidopsis thaliana, however, there are no systematic research reports in potato. In the present study, we obtained an overview of the GRAS gene family including gene structure, gene expression, chromosome mapping and phylogenetic analysis, and 52 StGRASs were identified in the potato by bioinformatics analysis, which could be divided into eight subfamilies based on phylogeny. More than 90% of genes do not contain introns and the StGRAS family major function is protein binding according to gene ontology analysis (GO).The tissue specific expression analysis showed that StGRAS3, StGRAS35 and StGRAS50 gene had the higher expression in roots, stems and leaves compared with other StGRAS, StGRAS9 and StGRAS28 genes were responded to plant hormones IAA, ABA and GA₃ treatment. The result could provide a basis for further studying the function of GRAS genes and GRAS-mediated signal transduction pathways in potato.