Chen Haiyang, Yu Haibo, Yuan Ling, Kong Lingchao, Li Shenchang, Cao Xiongjun, Li Yang, Wang Yi, Lin Ling, Guo Rongrong, Xie Taili, Duan Wei, Dai Zhanwu, Fan Peige, Li Shaohua, Liang Zhenchang, Wang Lijun
State Key Laboratory of Plant Diversity and Specialty Crops, Beijing Key Laboratory of Grape Sciences and Enology, Institute of Botany, The Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100093, China.
China National Botanical Garden, Beijing, 100093, China.
Nat Commun. 2025 Jun 1;16(1):5084. doi: 10.1038/s41467-025-60209-2.
With the increasing challenges posed by global warming and climate change, heat stress has become a significant threat to the sustainable production of grapevines. However, the genetic basis of grapevine thermotolerance remains poorly understood. Here, we combine genome-wide association study with transcriptomic profiling to identify TTC4 (thermotolerance on chromosome 4), a gene encoding a WRKY transcription factor, as a key determinant of thermotolerance in grapevine. TTC4 directly activates two thermotolerance-related genes, HSP18.1 and APX3. We also identify a heat-suppressed repressor SPL13 (SQUAMOSA-promoter binding protein-like 13) that cannot bind to the GTAT element (TTC4) in intron 2 of TTC4, but can bind to the natural variant, GTAC (TTC4). Grapevine accessions with TTC4 genotype exhibit significantly lower thermotolerance compared to those with the TTC4 and TTC4 genotypes. This fine-tuned regulation contributes to thermotolerance divergence among grapevine populations. The TTC4 haplotype holds significant potential as a genetic resource for breeding thermotolerant grapevine varieties.
随着全球变暖和气候变化带来的挑战日益增加，热胁迫已成为葡萄可持续生产的重大威胁。然而，葡萄耐热性的遗传基础仍知之甚少。在此，我们将全基因组关联研究与转录组分析相结合，鉴定出TTC4（4号染色体上的耐热性基因），该基因编码一种WRKY转录因子，是葡萄耐热性的关键决定因素。TTC4直接激活两个与耐热性相关的基因HSP18.1和APX3。我们还鉴定出一种受热抑制的阻遏物SPL13（类SQUAMOSA启动子结合蛋白13），它不能与TTC4内含子2中的GTAT元件（TTC4）结合，但能与天然变体GTAC（TTC4）结合。与具有TTC4和TTC4基因型的葡萄品种相比，具有TTC4基因型的葡萄品种耐热性显著较低。这种精细调节有助于葡萄群体间耐热性的差异。TTC4单倍型作为培育耐热葡萄品种的遗传资源具有巨大潜力。
