Identification of 30 MYB transcription factor genes and analysis of their expression during abiotic stress in peanut (Arachis hypogaea L.)

•30 MYB family genes were isolated from peanut cDNA library.•The conserved domains of R2R3-MYB proteins were analyzed.•Possible functions of some MYB proteins were conferred according to the NJ tree.•We indentified some MYB genes that responded to abiotic stress treatment.

The MYB superfamily constitutes one of the most abundant groups of transcription factors and plays central roles in developmental processes and defense responses in plants. In the work described in this article, 30 unique peanut MYB genes that contained full-length cDNA sequences were isolated. The 30 genes were grouped into three categories: one R1R2R3-MYB, nine R2R3-MYBs and 20 MYB-related members. The sequence composition of the R2 and R3 repeats was conserved among the nine peanut R2R3-MYB proteins. Phylogenetic comparison of the members of this superfamily between peanut and Arabidopsis revealed that the putative functions of some peanut MYB proteins were clustered into the Arabidopsis functional groups. Expression analysis during abiotic stress identified a group of MYB genes that responded to at least one stress treatment. This is the first comprehensive study of the MYB gene family in peanut.