| Summary: | Members of the <i>AP2</i>/<i>ERF</i> transcription factor family play critical roles in plant development, biosynthesis of key metabolites, and stress response. A detailed study was performed to identify <i>TtAP2</i>s<i>/ERF</i>s in the durum wheat (<i>Triticum turgidum</i> ssp. <i>durum</i>) genome, which resulted in the identification of 271 genes distributed on chromosomes 1A-7B. By carrying 27 genes, chromosome 6A had the highest number of <i>TtAP2</i>s<i>/ERF</i>s. Furthermore, a duplication assay of <i>TtAP2</i>s<i>/ERF</i>s demonstrated that 70 duplicated gene pairs had undergone purifying selection. According to RNA-seq analysis, the highest expression levels in all tissues and in response to stimuli were associated with <i>DRF</i> and <i>ERF</i> subfamily genes. In addition, the results revealed that <i>TtAP2/ERF</i> genes have tissue-specific expression patterns, and most <i>TtAP2/ERF</i> genes were significantly induced in the root tissue. Additionally, 13 <i>TtAP2/ERF</i> genes (six <i>ERF</i>s, three <i>DREB</i>s, two <i>DRF</i>s, one <i>AP2</i>, and one <i>RAV</i>) were selected for further analysis via qRT-PCR of their potential in coping with drought and salinity stresses. The <i>TtAP2/ERF</i> genes belonging to the DREB subfamily were markedly induced under both drought-stress and salinity-stress conditions. Furthermore, docking simulations revealed several residues in the pocket sites of the proteins associated with the stress response, which may be useful in future site-directed mutagenesis studies to increase the stress tolerance of durum wheat. This study could provide valuable insights for further evolutionary and functional assays of this important gene family in durum wheat.
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