Identification of gene family and characterization of cold stress-responsive genes in eggplant.

BACKGROUND

WRKY proteins play a vital role in the plants response to different stresses, growth and development. Studies of WRKY proteins have been mainly focused on model plant Arabidopsis and a few other vegetable plants. However, the systematical study of eggplant WRKY transcription factor superfamily is scarce.

METHODS

Bioinformatics has been used to identify and characterize the eggplant gene family. For the exploration of the differentially expressed genes, two cultivars with different cold-tolerance were used. Finally, we performed a virus-induced gene silencing (VIGS) experiment to verify the functions of and .

RESULTS

Fifty eight (58) genes encoding eggplant WRKY proteins were identified through searching the eggplant genome. Eggplant WRKY proteins could be classified into three groups or seven subgroups in accordance with other plants. WRKY variants were identified from the eggplant. Gene structure analysis showed that the number of intron in eggplant WRKY family was from 0 to 11, with an average of 4.4. Conserved motif analysis suggested that WRKY DNA-binding domain was conserved in eggplant WRKY proteins. Furthermore, RNA-seq data showed that genes were differentially expressed in eggplant response to cold stress. By using VIGS, the two differentially expressed genes- and were verified in response to cold stress.

DISCUSSIONS

This study provides a foundation for further exploring the functions of WRKY proteins in eggplant response to stresses and eggplant genetic improvement in stresses.