Association of transcription factor WRKY56 gene from Populus simonii × P. nigra with salt tolerance in Arabidopsis thaliana

PeerJ

article

Lei Wang¹  Wenjing Yao²  Yao Sun¹  Jiying Wang²  Tingbo Jiang² 

[1] Department of Biotechnology, Institute of Advanced Technology, Heilongjiang Academy of Sciences;State Key Laboratory of Tree Genetics and Breeding, College of Forestry, Northeast Forestry University;Bamboo Research Institute, Nanjing Forestry University

关键词: Arabidopsis thaliana;    Populus simonii × P. nigra;    WRKY transcription factor;    Salt stress;   

DOI  :  10.7717/peerj.7291

学科分类：社会科学、人文和艺术（综合）

来源: Inra

【 摘 要 】

The WRKY transcription factor family is one of the largest groups of transcription factor in plants, playing important roles in growth, development, and biotic and abiotic stress responses. Many WRKY genes have been cloned from a variety of plant species and their functions have been analyzed. However, the studies on WRKY transcription factors in tree species under abiotic stress are still not well characterized. To understand the effects of the WRKY gene in response to abiotic stress, mRNA abundances of 102 WRKY genes in Populus simonii × P. nigra were identified by RNA sequencing under normal and salt stress conditions. The expression of 23 WRKY genes varied remarkably, in a tissue-specific manner, under salt stress. Since the WRKY56 was one of the genes significantly induced by NaCl treatment, its cDNA fragment containing an open reading frame from P. simonii × P. nigra was then cloned and transferred into Arabidopsis using the floral dip method. Under salt stress, the transgenic Arabidopsis over-expressed the WRKY56 gene, showing an increase in fresh weight, germination rate, proline content, and peroxidase and superoxide dismutase activity, when compared with the wild type. In contrast, transgenic Arabidopsis displayed a decrease in malondialdehyde content under salt stress. Overall, these results indicated that the WRKY56 gene played an important role in regulating salt tolerance in transgenic Arabidopsis.

【 授权许可】

CC BY