Genome-wide analysis of HD-Zip genes in grape (Vitis vinifera)

Grape (Vitis vinifera) is one of the most important fruit trees worldwide, and genomics research has played an important role in grape breeding and culture. According to numerous studies in higher plants, homeodomain-leucine zipper (HD-Zip) proteins are a specific class of transcription factors that play an important role in plant development. In this study, bioinformatics methods were used to carry out genome-wide analysis of a complete set of candidate genes encoding HD-Zip proteins in grape, including analysis of the number, physical locations, and encoded amino acid sequences of grape HD-Zip genes, as well as phylogenetic analysis. We identified 31 HD-Zip genes (Vvhdz1–31) in the grape genome, which were categorized into four classes (HD-Zip I–IV). These HD-Zip proteins contain 20 conserved motifs; their amino acids sequences were deduced. Chromosomal location analysis revealed that these genes are distributed unevenly across all 18 chromosomes. The digital EST expression analyses provided a first glimpse of the expression patterns of HD-Zip genes in grape. The results of this study provide an important theoretical reference for more thorough investigations of HD-Zip genes in grape, as well as studies examining the growth, development, and breeding of grape.