B-BOX genes: genome-wide identification, evolution and their contribution to pollen growth in pear (Pyrus bretschneideri Rehd.)

Background The B-BOX (BBX) proteins have important functions in regulating plant growth and development. In plants, the BBX gene family has been identified in several plants, such as rice, Arabidopsis and tomato. However, there still lack a genome-wide survey of BBX genes in pear.