{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,7,29]],"date-time":"2026-07-29T17:59:09Z","timestamp":1785347949041,"version":"3.55.0"},"reference-count":41,"publisher":"MDPI AG","issue":"8","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2026,7,29]],"date-time":"2026-07-29T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1785283200000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"funder":[{"name":"Fundamental Research Funds for the Provincial Universities in Heilongjiang Province","award":["2025-KYYWF-ZR0448"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["2025-KYYWF-ZR0448"]}]},{"name":"Fundamental Research Funds for the Provincial Universities in Heilongjiang Province","award":["2025-KYYWF-ZR0446"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["2025-KYYWF-ZR0446"]}]}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["Genes"],"abstract":"<jats:p>The HAK\/KUP\/KT family represents a major group of plant potassium transporters involved in K+ uptake, ion homeostasis and stress responses. However, the accession-level diversity of HAK\/KUP\/KT genes in Brassica napus remains insufficiently characterized. In this study, we performed a pan-family analysis of HAK\/KUP\/KT genes across eight B. napus accessions. A total of 269 annotated HAK\/KUP\/KT family members were identified and classified into core, soft-core, dispensable and private orthogroups based on their representation across the analyzed genome annotations. Phylogenetic analysis grouped these proteins into four major clades together with reference HAK\/KUP\/KT members from Arabidopsis thaliana and rice. Ka\/Ks analysis indicated that HAK\/KUP\/KT orthogroups were predominantly under purifying selection, while accession-variable orthogroups showed greater variation in sequence conservation. Gene structure, conserved domain, motif and predicted promoter cis-element analyses revealed conserved transporter-related protein features together with orthogroup-level structural and sequence variation. Expression profiling using the ZS11 BnIR dataset further revealed tissue-, hormone- and stress-responsive expression patterns among ZS11 HAK\/KUP\/KT genes. By integrating expression features, predicted promoter information, evolutionary characteristics, published salt GWAS context and BnVIR haplotype\u2013phenotype information, BnaA08T0085800ZS was prioritized as a candidate locus located near salt-associated variation. This study provides a pan-genome perspective on HAK\/KUP\/KT family diversity in B. napus and establishes a framework for prioritizing candidate genes for future functional investigation.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3390\/genes17080893","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2026,7,29]],"date-time":"2026-07-29T17:01:46Z","timestamp":1785344506000},"page":"893","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/mdpi_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":0,"title":["Pan-Family Analysis of HAK\/KUP\/KT Potassium Transporters in Brassica napus Prioritizes a Candidate Locus Associated with Salt-Related Variation"],"prefix":"10.3390","volume":"17","author":[{"given":"Mingxuan","family":"Yao","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Engineering Research Center of Agricultural Microbiology Technology, Ministry of Education & Heilongjiang Provincial Key Laboratory of Ecological Restoration and Resource Utilization for Cold Region & Key Laboratory of Microbiology, College of Heilongjiang Province & School of Life Sciences, Heilongjiang University, Harbin 150080, China"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Yuhao","family":"Chu","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Engineering Research Center of Agricultural Microbiology Technology, Ministry of Education & Heilongjiang Provincial Key Laboratory of Ecological Restoration and Resource Utilization for Cold Region & Key Laboratory of Microbiology, College of Heilongjiang Province & School of Life Sciences, Heilongjiang University, Harbin 150080, China"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-9576-1800","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Xiaokang","family":"Dai","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Engineering Research Center of Agricultural Microbiology Technology, Ministry of Education & Heilongjiang Provincial Key Laboratory of Ecological Restoration and Resource Utilization for Cold Region & Key Laboratory of Microbiology, College of Heilongjiang Province & School of Life Sciences, Heilongjiang University, Harbin 150080, China"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"1968","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2026,7,29]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref_1","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"12656","DOI":"10.1038\/s41598-023-38910-3","article-title":"Forecasting Brassica napus production under climate change with a mechanistic species distribution model","volume":"13","author":"Borges","year":"2023","journal-title":"Sci. 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