Abstract:

CBF（C-repeat binding factor）gene family is categorized as the transcriptional activators and exerts an important role in response to abiotic stresses such as low temperature. In order to investigate the CBF gene family members involved in temperature response of Artemisia argyi，17 AaCBF genes of A. argyi were identified and analyzed by bioinformatics in this study. It was found that the amino acid length of the encoded protein ranged from 131-222 aa，with an average isoelectric point of 6.08. Most of the AaCBF proteins were localized in the nucleus. The 16 genes were unevenly distributed on 5 chromosomes，with the highest distribution on chromosomes 8 and 16. AaCBF08 was not localized to chromosomes. Based on the phylogenetic tree analysis，the gene family could be divided into 4 subfamilies，with members of the A. argyi gene family distributed across 3 of these subfamilies. All AaCBF gene family members contained Motif 1，Motif 5 and Motif 7，and conserved domains，demonstrating a high level of conservation. In addition，none of 17 genes contained introns. qRT-PCR results showed that six candidate AaCBF genes were significantly differentially expressed across different tissues of A. argyi. Under high-temperature treatment，the expression levels of the four candidate AaCBF genes gradually increased and reached the highest expression at 12 hours. Notably，the expression levels of AaCBF04 and AaCBF16 initially increased，subsequently decreased，and increased again at 12 hours and reached its highest level. Under low-temperature treatment，the expression levels of five candidate AaCBF genes first increased and then decreased，with the highest expression at three hours. In contrast，AaCBF15 increased again at 12 hours and reached its highest level.

Key words: Artemisia argyi, CBF gene family, bioinformatics, expression analysis