Evolutionary analysis and functional characterization of BZR1 gene family in celery revealed their conserved roles in brassinosteroid signaling

Background Brassinosteroids (BRs) are a group of essential steroid hormones involved in diverse developmental and physiological processes in plants. The Brassinazole-resistant 1 (BZR1) transcription factors are key components of BR signaling and integrate a wide range of internal and environmental signals to coordinate plant development, growth, and resistance to abiotic and biotic stresses. Although the BZR1 family has been fully studied in Arabidopsis, celery BZR1 family genes remain largely unknown. Results Nine BZR1 genes were identified in the celery genome, and categorized into four classes based on phylogenetic and gene structure analyses. All the BZR1 proteins shared a typical bHLH (basic helix-loop-helix) domain that is highly conserved across the whole family in Arabidopsis, grape, lettuce, ginseng, and three Apiaceae species. Both duplications and losses of the BZR1 gene family were detected during the shaping of the celery genome. Whole-genome duplication (WGD) or segmental duplication contributed 55.56% of the BZR1 genes expansion, and the gamma as well as celery-omega polyploidization events made a considerable contribution to the production of the BZR1 paralogs in celery. Four AgBZR1 members (AgBZR1.1, AgBZR1.3, AgBZR1.5, and AgBZR1.9), which were localized both in the nucleus and cytoplasm, exhibit transcription activation activity in yeast. AgBZR1.5 overexpression transgenic plants in Arabidopsis showed curled leaves with bent, long petioles and constitutive BR-responsive phenotypes. Furthermore, the AgBZR1 genes possessed divergent expression patterns with some overlaps in roots, petioles, and leaves, suggesting an extensive involvement of AgBZR1s in the developmental processes in celery with both functional redundancy and divergence. Conclusions Our results not only demonstrated that AgBZR1 played a conserved role in BR signaling but also suggested that AgBZR1 might be extensively involved in plant developmental processes in celery. The findings lay the foundation for further study on the molecular mechanism of the AgBZR1s in regulating the agronomic traits and environmental adaptation of celery, and provide insights for future BR-related genetic breeding of celery and other Apiaceae crops.