Abstract
Mulberry is known to be sensitive to several biotic and abiotic stresses, which in turn have a direct impact on the yield of silk, because it is the sole food source for the silk worm. WRKYs are a family of transcription factors, which play an important role in combating various biotic and abiotic stresses. In this study, we identified 54 genes with conserved WRKY motifs in the Morus notabilis genome. Motif searches coupled with a phylogenetic analysis revealed seven sub-groups as well as the absence of members of Group Ib in mulberry. Analyses of the 2K upstream region in addition to a gene ontology terms enrichment analysis revealed putative functions of mulberry WRKYs under biotic and abiotic stresses. An RNA-seq-based analysis showed that several of the identified WRKYs have shown preferential expression in the leaf, bark, root, male flower, and winter bud of M. notabilis. Finally, expression analysis by qPCR under different stress and hormone treatments revealed genotype-specific responses. Taken together, our results briefs about the genome-wide identification of WRKYs as well as their differential response to stresses and hormones. Importantly, these data can also be utilized to identify potential molecular targets for conferring tolerance to various stresses in mulberry.
Highlights
The WRKY genes expression plays an important role in secondary metabolism[16,17]
54 WRKY genes were identified in the Morus notabilis (MN) genome using hmm and blast search methods
Structural and functional analysis revealed the presence of representatives of all but Group Ib members in mulberry, suggesting a possible absence of Group Ib members in the Rosids
Summary
The WRKY genes expression plays an important role in secondary metabolism[16,17]. The physiological responses modulated by these WRKYs include auxin-13,18, cytokinin-19, jasmonic acid-, and salicylic acid-mediated responses[20,21,22]. These transcription factors have a wide range of activities, functioning as key regulators of various mechanisms in plants. The second, M. laevigata (ML), is distributed throughout India and the third, M. serrata (MS) is restricted to the Himalayan foothills Both ML and MS are resistant to Phyllactinia corylea, an Erysiphaceae member causing powdery mildew of mulberry. We performed a comparative expression profile of WRKY genes in the leaf tissues of these three species. We conducted real-time PCR based on the expression of select WRKYs, which were found to be differentially expressed under different stress and hormonal treatments
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