Bioinformatic Analysis of Auxin Response Factor (ARF) Gene Family in Rape

The auxin response factors are key regulators for growth and development of plant. In this study, a total of 32 BrARF genes that distributed on the ten chromosomes were identified in rape genome. ARF gene family of Rape is expanded as compared to the ARF genes of rice (25) and arabidopsis (23). Sequence alignment and phylogenetic analysis showed that some BrARF proteins fall into related sister pairs, and the mapping of chromosome revealed that the BrARF gene expansions are mainly due to recent segmental duplications. All the 32 BrARF proteins have B3 domain, but seven BrARF proteins are lack of AUX-IAA domains, suggesting the possibility of diverse functions of these BrARF genes.