Cassava plants (Manihot esculenta Crantz) have obvious abscission zone (AZ) structures in their leaf pulvinus-petioles. Cassava leaf abscission can be triggered by either 17 days of water-deficit stress or four days of ethylene treatment. To date, little is known about cassava AP2/ERF factors, and even less is known regarding their roles in regulating abscission zone development.

Here, the cassava and Arabidopsis AP2/ERF genes were compared; we found that the cassava genome contains approximately 1.54-fold more ERF subfamily than the Arabidopsis genome. Microarray analysis was used to identify the AP2/ERF genes that are expressed in cassava leaf pulvinus-petiole abscission zones by comparing the AP2/ERF gene expression profiles of ethylene- and water-deficit stress-induced leaf abscission. In total, 99 AP2/ERF genes were identified as expressed in AZs across six time points during both ethylene- and water-deficit stress-induced leaf abscission. Comparative expression profile analysis of similar Self-organising tree algorithm clusters at six time points during ethylene- and water-deficit stress-induced leaf abscission demonstrated that 20 ERF subfamily genes had similar expression patterns in response to both treatments. Gene ontology annotation confirmed that all 20 ERF subfamily genes participate in ethylene-mediated signalling. Analysis of the putative ERF promoter regions showed that the genes contained primarily ethylene- and stress-related cis-elements. Further analysis of ACC oxidase activity in AZs across six time points during abscission showed increased ethylene production in response to both ethylene and water-deficit stress; however, the difference was more dramatic for water-deficit stress. Finally, the expression ratios of 20 ERF subfamily genes were analysed in two cassava cultivars, ‘KU50’and ‘SC5’, that exhibit different levels of leaf abscission when challenged with the same water-deficit stress. The analysis indicated that most of the ERF genes were expressed at higher levels in the precocious abscission ‘KU50’ cultivar than in the delayed abscission ‘SC5’ cultivar.