(), one of the most popular edible mushrooms in China, is adversely affected by high temperature. Heat shock proteins (HSPs) play a crucial role in regulating the defense responses against the abiotic stresses in . Some HSPs in have been described previously, but a genome-wide analysis of these proteins is still lacking. Here, the HSP genes across the entire genome of the mushroom were identified. The 34 genes were subsequently classified into six subfamilies according to their molecular weights and the phylogenetic analysis. Sequence analysis showed that LeHSP proteins from the same subfamily have conserved domains and one to five similar motifs. Except for Chr 5 and 9, 34 genes were distributed on the other eight chromosomes. Three pairs of paralogs were identified because of sequence alignment and were confirmed as arising from segmental duplication. In promoters, different numbers of heat shock elements (HSEs) were predicted. The expression profiles of in 18N44 and 18 suggested that the thermo-tolerance of strain 18N44 might be related to high levels of transcript in response to heat stress. The quantitative real-time PCR (qRT-PCR) analysis of the 16 genes in strains Le015 and Le027 verified their stress-inducible expression patterns under heat stress. Therefore, these comprehensive findings provide useful in-depth information on the evolution and function of and lay a theoretical foundation in breeding thermotolerant varieties.
