“…Extensive studies have been conducted to investigate the significant roles of AP2/ERF genes in regulating diverse developmental processes, stress responses and plant hormone signal transduction, including ethylene, auxin, salicylic acid and jasmonic acid [ 12 – 14 ]. Several members of the ERF subfamily have been revealed as viable candidates to enhance plant abiotic stress tolerance and display different response patterns under abiotic stress, including cold ( AtCBF1 , PtERF109 ) [ 15 , 16 ], heat ( ZmDREB2A , AtDREB1A ) [ 17 , 18 ], osmotic stress ( CkDREB ) [ 19 ], drought ( OsDREB1 , IbRAP2–12 ) [ 20 – 22 ], and high-salt stress ( CaDREBLP1 , LkERF-B2, IbERF5 ) [ 23 – 25 ]. Members of the AP2 subfamily play vital roles in the regulation of organ architecture and development, such as floral organ patterning [ 26 – 28 ], leaf development [ 29 ] and embryo development [ 30 ], while RAV subfamily genes are the main factors involved in plant hormone signal transduction [ 31 ], including that of brassinosteroids [ 32 ], ethylene [ 33 ] and auxin [ 34 ], and are the main regulators of multiple stress responses [ 11 , 35 , 36 ].…”