{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,9,3]],"date-time":"2026-09-03T07:15:48Z","timestamp":1788419748097,"version":"build-2803163510"},"reference-count":29,"publisher":"Frontiers Media SA","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2026,9,3]],"date-time":"2026-09-03T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1788393600000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"content-domain":{"domain":["frontiersin.org"],"crossmark-restriction":true},"short-container-title":["Front. Plant Sci."],"abstract":"<jats:p>\n                    Heat shock transcription factors (\n                    <jats:italic>Hsf<\/jats:italic>\n                    ) are key regulators of plant responses to environmental stresses, but their intraspecific diversity and evolutionary dynamics in the tea plant remain insufficiently understood. In this study, we performed a pangenome-wide identification and systematic analysis of the\n                    <jats:italic>Hsf<\/jats:italic>\n                    gene family across 22\n                    <jats:italic>Camellia sinensis<\/jats:italic>\n                    genomes. A total of 536\n                    <jats:italic>Hsf<\/jats:italic>\n                    genes were identified, with gene numbers ranging from 15 in HD to 33 in SCZ, indicating substantial accession-level copy number variation. Phylogenetic analysis classified these genes into three major subfamilies, including Hsf-A, Hsf-B, and Hsf-C, among which Hsf-A was the largest group. Orthogroup-based pangenome analysis assigned the 536\n                    <jats:italic>Hsf<\/jats:italic>\n                    genes to 21 orthogroups, including 7 core orthogroups and 14 dispensable orthogroups, suggesting that dispensable genes represent an important component of the tea\n                    <jats:italic>Hsf<\/jats:italic>\n                    repertoire. Gene duplication analysis showed that dispersed duplication and WGD\/segmental duplication were the major forces driving\n                    <jats:italic>Hsf<\/jats:italic>\n                    family expansion, whereas proximal and tandem duplications contributed relatively little. Copy number variation was widespread among\n                    <jats:italic>Hsf<\/jats:italic>\n                    orthogroups, especially in dispensable orthogroups. Selection pressure analysis revealed that most homologous\n                    <jats:italic>Hsf<\/jats:italic>\n                    gene pairs were under purifying selection, although selection intensity differed among subfamilies. Transcriptome analysis of SCZ showed tissue-preferential expression patterns and PEG-responsive expression divergence. Notably, Hsf-B genes exhibited the highest average expression under PEG stress and occupied a central position in the PCC-based co-expression network. Several genes, including CSS0020980.1 and CSS0019914.1, were identified as candidate PEG-responsive\n                    <jats:italic>Hsf<\/jats:italic>\n                    genes. These results provide a comprehensive pangenome-level framework for understanding\n                    <jats:italic>Hsf<\/jats:italic>\n                    gene evolution and stress-responsive regulation in tea plant.\n                  <\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3389\/fpls.2026.1949069","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2026,9,3]],"date-time":"2026-09-03T06:41:05Z","timestamp":1788417665000},"update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3389\/crossmark-policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":0,"title":["Pangenome-wide identification and analysis of the heat shock transcription factor gene family in tea plant (Camellia sinensis)"],"prefix":"10.3389","volume":"17","author":[{"given":"Quanlong","family":"Liu","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"School of Life Sciences, North China University of Science and Technology","place":["Tangshan, China"]},{"name":"School of Life Science and Technology, Northwestern Polytechnical University","place":["Xi\u2019an, Shaanxi, China"]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Shanyuanrui","family":"Lin","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"School of Life Sciences, North China University of Science and Technology","place":["Tangshan, China"]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Zhuolin","family":"Li","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"School of Life Sciences, North China University of Science and Technology","place":["Tangshan, China"]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Renjie","family":"Yin","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"School of Life Sciences, North China University of Science and Technology","place":["Tangshan, China"]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Xiaohan","family":"Liu","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"School of Life Sciences, North China University of Science and Technology","place":["Tangshan, China"]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Yan","family":"Gao","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"School of Life Sciences, North China University of Science and Technology","place":["Tangshan, China"]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Linna","family":"Ma","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"School of Life Sciences, North China University of Science and Technology","place":["Tangshan, China"]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Hechen","family":"Li","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"School of Life Sciences, North China University of Science and Technology","place":["Tangshan, China"]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Yaman","family":"Yin","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"School of Life Sciences, North China University of Science and Technology","place":["Tangshan, China"]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Peng","family":"Liu","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"School of Life Sciences, North China University of Science and Technology","place":["Tangshan, China"]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Jiaqi","family":"Zhang","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"School of Life Sciences, North China University of Science and Technology","place":["Tangshan, China"]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"1965","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2026,9,3]]},"reference":[{"key":"B1","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"361","DOI":"10.1609\/icwsm.v3i1.13937","article-title":"Gephi: An open source software for exploring and manipulating networks","volume":"3","author":"Bastian","year":"2009"},{"key":"B2","first-page":"433","article-title":"Bias in plant gene content following different sorts of duplication: Tandem, whole-genome, segmental, or by transposition","author":"Biol","year":"2009"},{"key":"B3","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"59","DOI":"10.1038\/nmeth.3176","article-title":"Fast and sensitive protein alignment using DIAMOND","volume":"12","author":"Buchfink","year":"2015","journal-title":"Nat. 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