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Peer-reviewedCC BY-NC 4.0GM Crops & Food

AP2/ERF transcription factors in plant stress adaptation: evolutionary expansion, functional diversification and hormone crosstalk

  • Guoxin Dong1
  • Jiaying Lei1
  • Xue Gao1
  • Yushi Jiang1
  • Jinyang Deng1
  • Xinmu Fan1
  • Yanan Li1
  • Ning Yan2
  • Rengui Zhao1
  • Yanning Xie1
  1. 1College of Agronomy, Jilin Agricultural University, Changchun, China
  2. 2Key Laboratory of Synthetic Biology of Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, Tobacco Research Institute, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Qingdao, China
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Abstract

APETALA2/ethylene response factor (AP2/ERF) transcription factors constitute a plant-specific regulatory family that coordinates plant development, environmental stress responses, and hormone signaling. However, the contribution of AP2/ERF family expansion and functional diversification to environmental adaptation has not been fully integrated across evolutionary and mechanistic scales. This review synthesizes classical findings and representative advances from the past five years in structural classification, duplication-driven expansion, functional diversification, stress adaptation, and hormone crosstalk, with particular emphasis on how post-duplication divergence shapes regulatory function. Across these studies, AP2/ERF proteins emerge as context-dependent nodes that connect environmental or hormonal signals with direct target genes and downstream physiological responses. This perspective distinguishes family expansion from demonstrated adaptive function and helps explain why closely related AP2/ERFs can produce contrasting outcomes in different biological contexts. We further discuss priorities for functional validation in non-model species, multi-stress experiments, multi-omics integration, field phenotyping, and gene-editing-based breeding, highlighting AP2/ERF regulators with potential for engineering stress-resilient crops.

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Cite

BibTeXRIS
BibTeX
@article{dong2026ap2erf,
  title = {{AP2/ERF transcription factors in plant stress adaptation: evolutionary expansion, functional diversification and hormone crosstalk}},
  author = {Guoxin Dong and Jiaying Lei and Xue Gao and Yushi Jiang and Jinyang Deng and Xinmu Fan and Yanan Li and Ning Yan and Rengui Zhao and Yanning Xie},
  journal = {GM Crops \& Food},
  year = {2026},
  month = oct,
  doi = {10.1080/21645698.2026.2753254},
  url = {https://doi.org/10.1080/21645698.2026.2753254},
  note = {CC BY-NC 4.0},
}
RIS
TY  - JOUR
TI  - AP2/ERF transcription factors in plant stress adaptation: evolutionary expansion, functional diversification and hormone crosstalk
AU  - Guoxin Dong
AU  - Jiaying Lei
AU  - Xue Gao
AU  - Yushi Jiang
AU  - Jinyang Deng
AU  - Xinmu Fan
AU  - Yanan Li
AU  - Ning Yan
AU  - Rengui Zhao
AU  - Yanning Xie
PY  - 2026
DA  - 2026/10/22
JO  - GM Crops & Food
DO  - 10.1080/21645698.2026.2753254
UR  - https://doi.org/10.1080/21645698.2026.2753254
AB  - APETALA2/ethylene response factor (AP2/ERF) transcription factors constitute a plant-specific regulatory family that coordinates plant development, environmental stress responses, and hormone signaling. However, the contribution of AP2/ERF family expansion and functional diversification to environmental adaptation has not been fully integrated across evolutionary and mechanistic scales. This review synthesizes classical findings and representative advances from the past five years in structural classification, duplication-driven expansion, functional diversification, stress adaptation, and hormone crosstalk, with particular emphasis on how post-duplication divergence shapes regulatory function. Across these studies, AP2/ERF proteins emerge as context-dependent nodes that connect environmental or hormonal signals with direct target genes and downstream physiological responses. This perspective distinguishes family expansion from demonstrated adaptive function and helps explain why closely related AP2/ERFs can produce contrasting outcomes in different biological contexts. We further discuss priorities for functional validation in non-model species, multi-stress experiments, multi-omics integration, field phenotyping, and gene-editing-based breeding, highlighting AP2/ERF regulators with potential for engineering stress-resilient crops.
SN  - 2164-5698
SN  - 2164-5701
ER  -