BackgroundBasic leucine zipper (bZIP) proteins are important transcription factors in plants. To study the role of bZIP transcription factors in walnut explant browning, this study used bioinformatics software to analyze walnut bZIP gene family members, along with their transcript levels in different walnut tissues, to evaluate the transcriptional expression of this gene family during the primary culture of walnut explants and to reveal the mechanism of action of walnutbZIPgenes in walnut explant browning.ResultsThe results identified 65JrbZIPgenes in the walnut genome, which were divided into 8 subfamilies and distributed on 16 chromosomes. The results of transcriptome data analysis showed that there were significant differences in the expression of four genes, namely,JrbZIP55, JrbZIP70, JrbZIP72,andJrbZIP88, under both vermiculite and agar culture conditions. There were multiple hormone (salicylic acid, abscisic acid, auxin, and gibberellin) signaling and regulatory elements that are responsive to stress (low temperature, stress, and defense) located in the promoter regions ofJrbZIP55, JrbZIP70, JrbZIP72,andJrbZIP88. The walnut JrbZIP55 protein andArabidopsisbZIP42 protein are highly homologous, and the proteins interacting withArabidopsisbZIP42 include the AT2G19940 oxidoreductases, which act on aldehyde or oxygen-containing donors.ConclusionIt is speculated that JrbZIP55 may participate in the regulation of browning in walnut explants.Supplementary InformationThe online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s12864-023-09492-1.