In the era of global environmental changes, high curiosity in identifying and characterizing new antioxidant enzymes in plants has been witnessed. Previous studies reported the pivotal role played by Glutathione reductase (GR) in maintaining the reduced glutathione pool during stress. However, the knowledge of GR family members and their evolutionary and functional characteristics in oilseed species is limited. In this study, 6 and 4 GRs were identified from Brassica juncea and B. rapa genomes, respectively. Phylogenetic analysis of protein sequences showed diversification of this gene family into cytosolic and chloroplastic GR. Duplication of a single ancestral gene might have led to the diversification of cytosolic and chloroplastic GR before the divergence of monocot and dicot. The cytosolic GRs consisted of complex gene architecture compared to the chloroplastic ones, which can increase their expression level. Chloroplastic GRs showed the presence of N-terminal signal peptide. A high degree of conservation in gene and protein structures in the same sub-cellular compartment was observed. Notably, all cytosolic GRs were found to be differentially expressed under heat and drought stresses. Predicted cis-regulatory elements and miRNA targets were found to be associated with abiotic, biotic and developmental responses. Our study explained the structural and functional information of the GR family and the roles of different members in maintaining redox homeostasis under abiotic stresses. The study has laid the basic ground work for detailed functional characterization in future studies and developing improved oilseed varieties better adaptive to environmental stress conditions.

在全球环境变化的时代，人们目睹了对植物中新的抗氧化酶的鉴定和表征的高度好奇。先前的研究报告了谷胱甘肽还原酶 (GR) 在压力期间维持还原型谷胱甘肽池中发挥的关键作用。然而，GR家族成员及其在油籽物种中的进化和功能特征的知识是有限的。在这项研究中，6个和4个遗传资源从鉴定芥菜和白菜基因组，分别。蛋白质序列的系统发育分析表明该基因家族多样化为细胞质和叶绿体 GR。在单子叶植物和双子叶植物分化之前，单个祖先基因的复制可能导致细胞质和叶绿体 GR 的多样化。与叶绿体相比，细胞质GRs由复杂的基因结构组成，这可以增加它们的表达水平。叶绿体 GR 显示存在 N 端信号肽。观察到同一亚细胞区室中基因和蛋白质结构的高度保守。值得注意的是，发现所有细胞溶质GRs在热和干旱胁迫下都有差异表达。预测顺式发现调控元件和 miRNA 靶标与非生物、生物和发育反应有关。我们的研究解释了 GR 家族的结构和功能信息以及不同成员在非生物胁迫下维持氧化还原稳态的作用。该研究为未来研究中详细的功能表征和开发更好地适应环境胁迫条件的油籽改良品种奠定了基础。