Comprehensive Analysis of the NF-YB Gene Family and Expression under Abiotic Stress and Hormone Treatment in Larix kaempferi

NF-YB, a subfamily of Nuclear Factor Y (NF-Y) transcription factor, play crucial role in many biological processes of plant growth and development and abiotic stress responses, and they can therefore be good candidate factors for breeding stress-resistant plants. However, the NF-YB proteins have not yet been explored in , a tree species with high economic and ecological values in northeast China and other regions, limiting the breeding of anti-stress In order to explore the roles of NF-YB transcription factors in , we identified 20 family genes from full-length transcriptome data and carried out preliminary characterization of them through series of analyses on their phylogenetic relationships, conserved motif structure, subcellular localization prediction, GO annotation, promoter -acting elements as well as expression profiles under treatment of phytohormones (ABA, SA, MeJA) and abiotic stresses (salt and drought). The genes were classified into three clades through phylogenetic analysis and belong to non-LEC1 type NF-YB transcription factors. They have 10 conserved motifs; all genes contain a common motif, and their promoters have various phytohormones and abiotic stress related -acting elements. Quantitative real time reverse transcription PCR (RT-qPCR) analysis showed that the sensitivity of the genes to drought and salt stresses was higher in leaves than roots. The sensitivity of genes to ABA, MeJA, SA stresses was much lower than that to abiotic stress. Among the , showed the strongest responses to drought and ABA treatments. Further protein interaction prediction analysis for revealed that interacts with various factors associated with stress responses and epigenetic regulation as well as NF-YA/NF-YC factors. Taken together, these results unveiled novel NF-YB family genes and their characteristics, providing the basic knowledge for further in-depth studies on their roles in abiotic stress responses of .