Genome-Wide Identification of the YABBY Gene Family in Seven Species of Magnoliids and Expression Analysis in Litsea

The YABBY gene family, specific to seed plants, encodes a class of transcription factors in the lamina maintenance and development of lateral organs. Magnoliids are sisters to the clade-containing eudicots and monocots, which have rapidly diversified among the common ancestors of these three lineages. However, prior to this study, information on the function of the YABBY genes in magnoliids was extremely limited to the third major clades and the early diverging lineage of Mesangiospermae. In this study, the sum of 55 YABBY genes including five genes in INO, six in CRC, eight in YAB2, 22 in YAB5, and 14 in FIL clade were identified from seven magnoliid plants. Sequence analysis showed that all encoded YABBY protein sequences possess the highly conserved YABBY domain and C2C2 zinc-finger domain. Gene and protein structure analysis indicates that a certain number of exons were highly conserved and similar in the same class, and YABBY genes encode proteins of 71–392 amino acids and an open reading frame of 216–1179 bp in magnoliids. Additionally, the predicted molecular weight and isoelectric point of YABBY proteins in three species ranged from 7689.93 to 43578.13 and from 5.33 to 9.87, respectively. Meanwhile, the YABBY gene homolog expression of Litsea was detected at a temporal and spatial level during various developmental stages of leaf and reproductive tissues. This research could provide a brief overview of YABBY gene family evolution and its differential expression in magnoliids. Therefore, this comprehensive diversification analysis would provide a new insight into further understanding of the function of genes in seven magnoliids.