Members of the ERF transcription-factor family participate in a number of biological processes, viz., responses to hormones, adaptation to biotic and abiotic stress, metabolism regulation, beneficial symbiotic interactions, cell differentiation and developmental processes. So far, no tissue-expression profile of any cucumber ERF protein has been reported in detail. Recent completion of the cucumber full-genome sequence has come to facilitate, not only genome-wide analysis of ERF family members in cucumbers themselves, but also a comparative analysis with those in Arabidopsis and rice. In this study, 103 hypothetical ERF family genes in the cucumber genome were identified, phylogenetic analysis indicating their classification into 10 groups, designated I to... |