Abstract
It is well known that WRKY transcription factors play essential roles in plants’ response to diverse stress responses, especially to drought and salt stresses. However, a full comprehensive analysis of this family in wheat is still missing. Here we used in silico analysis and identified 124 WRKY genes, including 294 homeologous copies from a high-quality reference genome of wheat (Triticum aestivum). We also found that the TaWRKY gene family did not undergo gene duplication rather than gene loss during the evolutionary process. The TaWRKY family members displayed different expression profiles under several abiotic stresses, indicating their unique functions in the mediation of particular responses. Furthermore, TaWRKY75-A was highly induced after polyethylene glycol and salt treatments. The ectopic expression of TaWRKY75-A in Arabidopsis enhanced drought and salt tolerance. A comparative transcriptome analysis demonstrated that TaWRKY75-A integrated jasmonic acid biosynthetic pathway and other potential metabolic pathways to increase drought and salt resistances in transgenic Arabidopsis. Our study provides valuable insights into the WRKY family in wheat and will generate a useful genetic resource for improving wheat breeding.
Highlights
It is well known that wheat is one of the most important and widely cultivated cereals, supporting 60% of the world’s population for their daily calorific and protein needs (Tadesse et al, 2017)
Progress in gene identification and functional evaluation of WRKY family members uncovered their important roles in plant adaptation to various environmental cues (Pan et al, 2017)
In comparison to other crops, knowledge on WRKY gene family has remained relatively scarce in the wheat field due to the relatively backward release of complete and high-quality genome
Summary
It is well known that wheat is one of the most important and widely cultivated cereals, supporting 60% of the world’s population for their daily calorific and protein needs (Tadesse et al, 2017). The productivities of wheat in some regions are still very low due to various stress conditions such as drought, high salinity, heat, and cold. WRKY TFs comprise a large gene family and are involved in various abiotic stress responses, including drought and high salinity stresses (Phukan et al, 2016). WRKY TFs encode proteins harboring a WRKYGQK amino acid sequence that can bind to W-box motif in the promoter for the regulation of target gene expression (Eulgem et al, 2000; Ciolkowski et al, 2008). The WRKY gene family is a large group that is composed of multiple members. Group II can be further categorized into IIa, IIb, IIc, IId, and IIe subgroups based on the additional short conserved structural motifs (Eulgem et al, 2000; Chen et al, 2018)
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