Genome-Wide Identification and Analysis of GATA Gene Family in Dendrobium officinale Under Methyl Jasmonate and Salt Stress

Dendrobium officinale,which was rich in bioactive compounds such as polysaccharides, alkaloids, amino acids, and flavonoids, had significant medicinal value and ability to resist stresses. Studies had demonstrated thatGATAgenes were one of the crucial regulators in controlling plant development and growth and stress response. Genome-wide identification and characterization of the 18DoGATAgenes were displayed. According to phylogenetic relationships, theDoGATAfamily genes were divided into 4 groups and the conserved motifs ofDoGATA1–DoGATA18within the same group were similar. AllDoGATAgenes were localized in the nucleus and randomly mapped on 10 chromosomes. The GATA genes inD. officinaleexperienced one pair of tandem duplication and 4 pairs of segment duplications to expand the family genes. Additionally, we found that the 2000 bp upstream promoter region of theDoGATAgenes harbored 23 types ofcis-acting elements that were categorized into plant growth and development, phytohormone responsiveness, and stress responsiveness.DoGATA1–DoGATA18were diversely expressed across different tissues (root, leaf, stem, flower), exposed to salt stress, and following MeJA treatment. Co-expression analysis betweenDoGATAand enzyme-encoding genes involved in the biosynthesis of flavone showed thatDoCHI(LOC110104562) andDoGTMT(LOC110098370) may be potential downstream targets ofDoGATA16to regulate flavonoid biosynthesis to adapt to salt stress. Furthermore, we confirmed thatDoGATA16may act as a key member to resist stress. The collective findings of this study shed light on the function ofGATAgenes and molecular breeding ofD. officinale.