Innovation Platform of Molecular Biology, College of Landscape and Art, Henan Agricultural University, Zhengzhou, China.
School of Forestry, Northern Arizona University, Flagstaff, AZ, USA.
Genetica. 2023 Apr;151(2):153-165. doi: 10.1007/s10709-023-00184-y. Epub 2023 Feb 28.
Weeping forsythia is a wide-spread shrub in China with important ornamental, medicinal and ecological values. It is widely distributed in China's warm temperate zone. In plants, WRKY transcription factors play important regulatory roles in seed germination, flower development, fruit ripening and coloring, and biotic and abiotic stress response. To date, WRKY transcription factors have not been systematically studied in weeping forsythia. In this study, we identified 79 WRKY genes in weeping forsythia and classified them according to their naming rules in Arabidopsis thaliana. Phylogenetic tree analysis showed that, except for IIe subfamily, whose clustering was inconsistent with A. thaliana clustering, other subfamily clustering groups were consistent. Cis-element analysis showed that WRKY genes related to pathogen resistance in weeping forsythia might be related to methyl jasmonate and salicylic acid-mediated signaling pathways. Combining cis-element and expression pattern analyses of WRKY genes showed that more than half of WRKY genes were involved in light-dependent development and morphogenesis in different tissues. The gene expression results showed that 13 WRKY genes were involved in drought response, most of which might be related to the abscisic acid signaling pathway, and a few of which might be regulated by MYB transcription factors. The gene expression results under cold stress showed that 17 WRKY genes were involved in low temperature response, and 9 of them had low temperature responsiveness cis-elements. Our study of WRKY family in weeping forsythia provided useful resources for molecular breeding and important clues for their functional verification.
连翘是中国广泛分布的灌木，具有重要的观赏、药用和生态价值。它广泛分布于中国暖温带。在植物中，WRKY 转录因子在种子萌发、花发育、果实成熟和着色、生物和非生物胁迫响应等方面发挥着重要的调节作用。迄今为止，WRKY 转录因子在连翘中尚未得到系统研究。本研究在连翘中鉴定了 79 个 WRKY 基因，并根据其在拟南芥中的命名规则进行了分类。系统发育树分析表明，除 IIe 亚家族聚类与拟南芥聚类不一致外，其他亚家族聚类组是一致的。顺式作用元件分析表明，与连翘中病原体抗性相关的 WRKY 基因可能与茉莉酸甲酯和水杨酸介导的信号通路有关。WRKY 基因的顺式作用元件和表达模式分析表明，超过一半的 WRKY 基因参与不同组织中光依赖性发育和形态发生。基因表达结果表明，13 个 WRKY 基因参与干旱响应，其中大多数可能与脱落酸信号通路有关，少数可能受 MYB 转录因子调控。低温胁迫下的基因表达结果表明，17 个 WRKY 基因参与低温响应，其中 9 个具有低温响应顺式元件。我们对连翘 WRKY 家族的研究为分子育种提供了有用的资源，并为其功能验证提供了重要线索。
