Abstract
We performed genome-wide analysis of ERF family genes in Arabidopsis and rice. We identified 122 ERF genes in Arabidopsis. Analyses of phylogeny with AP2/ERF domains and conserved motifs, which may be involved in transcriptional regulation, outside the domain indicated that most of these genes were divided into two major subfamilies, DREB and ERF, comprising two and five groups, respectively. The others, including twelve genes, were divided into three groups. For each of the ten groups, we evaluated the structural features and functional information from public databases. Our classification possibly reflected functional similarities and should help us to estimate specific functions for each ERF protein in other plant species as well as Arabidopsis. Thus, we found 115 ERF genes in japonica rice, which retains the groups identified in Arabidopsis with distinct conserved motifs. This also suggests that functional divergence of ERF proteins is conserved between monocot and dicot.
