Key Laboratory of Bioactive Substances and Resources Utilization of Chinese Herbal Medicine, Ministry of Education & National Engineering Laboratory for Breeding of Endangered Medicinal Materials, Institute of Medicinal Plant Development, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences and Peking Union Medical College, Beijing, 100193, China.
Hainan Provincial Key Laboratory of Resources Conservation and Development of Southern Medicine & Key Laboratory of State Administration of Traditional Chinese Medicine for Agarwood Sustainable Utilization, Hainan Branch of the Institute of Medicinal Plant Development, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences and Peking Union Medical College, Haikou, 570311, China.
Sci Rep. 2020 Feb 20;10(1):3018. doi: 10.1038/s41598-020-59597-w.
The WRKY proteins are a superfamily of transcription factor that regulate diverse developmental and physiological processes in plants. Completion of the whole-genome sequencing of Aquilaria sinensis allowed us to perform a genome-wide investigation for WRKY proteins. Here, we predicted 70 WRKY genes from the A. sinensis genome and undertaken a comprehensive bioinformatic analysis. Due to their diverse structural features, the 70 AsWRKY genes are classified into three main groups (group I-III), with five subgroups (IIa-IIe) in group II, except two belong to none of them. Distinct expression profiles of AsWRKYs with RNA sequencing data revealed their diverse expression patterns among different tissues and in the process of whole-tree-inducing agarwood formation. Based on the expression characteristics, we predict some AsWRKYs are pseudogenes, and some may be involved in the biosynthesis of agarwood sesquiterpenes as activators or repressors. Among the tested genes treated with MeJA and HO, most of them are induced by HO, but downregulated by MeJA, implying the complexity of their involvement in signal transduction regulation. Our results not only provide a basic platform for functional identification of WRKYs in A. sinensis but important clues for further analysis their regulation role in agarwood formation.
WRKY 蛋白是一类转录因子超家族，它们调节植物的多种发育和生理过程。完成沉香基因组的全基因组测序后，我们能够对 WRKY 蛋白进行全基因组研究。在这里，我们从沉香基因组中预测了 70 个 WRKY 基因，并进行了全面的生物信息学分析。由于其结构特征的多样性，这 70 个 AsWRKY 基因分为三个主要组（I-III 组），其中 II 组有五个亚组（IIa-IIe），除了两个不属于任何一组。基于 RNA 测序数据的 AsWRKYs 表达谱显示，它们在不同组织和整树诱导沉香形成过程中表现出不同的表达模式。根据表达特征，我们预测了一些 AsWRKYs 是假基因，一些可能作为激活剂或抑制剂参与沉香倍半萜的生物合成。在所测试的用 MeJA 和 HO 处理的基因中，大多数基因被 HO 诱导，但被 MeJA 下调，这表明它们在信号转导调节中的参与的复杂性。我们的研究结果不仅为沉香中 WRKYs 的功能鉴定提供了一个基础平台，而且为进一步分析它们在沉香形成中的调控作用提供了重要线索。
