Bioinformatics Analysis on Soybean ERF Family Genes and Their Response to Low Phosphorus Stress

In order to analyze the characteristics of soybean Ethylene Response Factor（ERF） genes and their response to low phosphorus stress, this study identified ERF family genes from soybean genome database by bioinformatics methods. And then we analyzed the evolution, chromosome distribution and gene structure of the family genes and their gene expression patterns in different tissues during soybean development, and the expression of the family genes under low phosphorus stress. The results showed that the gene family was distributed in the whole soybean genome except chromosome 4, among which chromosome 3, 10, 13, 18 and 19 were more distributed. The gene structure analysis showed that the whole family had a typical AP2 domain. Homologous sequence alignment and evolutionary analysis divided the genes of this family into 4 groups, including 15, 5, 19 and 20 genes, respectively. Tissue expression analysis based on Soybase database showed that the family genes were expressed in different tissues of soybean. qRT-PCR results showed that the family genes were induced in soybean roots, stems and leaves under low phosphorus stress. The results showed that the structure of soybean ERF genes were conservative, and were involved in the response to low phosphorus stress.