Yu Yang, Wang Conglei, Wang Jianhe, Xu Qingfen, Zhang Shuangxing, Song Tianqi, Li Guodong, Liang Dan, Feng Gang
Institute of Crop Sciences, Tianjin Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Tianjin, China.
Tianjin Crop Research Institute, The Key Laboratory of Crop Genetics and Breeding, Tianjin, China.
Front Plant Sci. 2025 Mar 27;16:1535850. doi: 10.3389/fpls.2025.1535850. eCollection 2025.
Ethylene response factors (ERFs) are transcription factors that are essential in modulating drought stress responses in plants such as and rice. However, the functional role of ERF in wheat drought stress response remains unclear. We identified 33 wheat genes under drought stress using transcriptomic analysis and categorized them into eight subfamilies (I-VIII). Among them, 12 drought-responsive candidate genes were upregulated, and was selected for further analysis. overexpression in resulted in significantly reduced survival rates under drought conditions with decreased expression of stress-responsive and antioxidant enzyme genes, indicating that the gene elevated drought sensitivity in transgenic . In wheat, overexpression of under drought stress increased malondialdehyde accumulation, decreased chlorophyll and proline levels, and reduced antioxidant enzyme activity. Furthermore, the expression of stress-responsive and antioxidant-related genes was suppressed, suggesting that TaERF13-2B negatively regulates wheat response to drought stress. The interactions between TaERF13-2B and TaCIPK9 were further confirmed using yeast two-hybrid and bimolecular fluorescence complementation. Overall, these discoveries deepen our insights into the wheat ERF family and contribute to the elucidation of the functional role of TaERF13-2B in wheat.
乙烯响应因子（ERFs）是转录因子，在调节拟南芥和水稻等植物的干旱胁迫反应中至关重要。然而，ERF在小麦干旱胁迫反应中的功能作用仍不清楚。我们通过转录组分析在干旱胁迫下鉴定了33个小麦ERF基因，并将它们分为八个亚家族（I - VIII）。其中，12个干旱响应候选基因上调，选择TaERF13 - 2B进行进一步分析。TaERF13 - 2B在拟南芥中的过表达导致干旱条件下存活率显著降低，同时胁迫响应和抗氧化酶基因的表达下降，这表明TaERF13 - 2B基因提高了转基因拟南芥的干旱敏感性。在小麦中，干旱胁迫下TaERF13 - 2B的过表达增加了丙二醛积累，降低了叶绿素和脯氨酸水平，并降低了抗氧化酶活性。此外，胁迫响应和抗氧化相关基因的表达受到抑制，这表明TaERF13 - 2B负向调节小麦对干旱胁迫的反应。使用酵母双杂交和双分子荧光互补进一步证实了TaERF13 - 2B与TaCIPK9之间的相互作用。总体而言，这些发现加深了我们对小麦ERF家族的认识，并有助于阐明TaERF13 - 2B在小麦中的功能作用。
