Abstract
WRKY transcription factors play important roles in abiotic stress by directly regulating stress-related genes. However, the molecular mechanism of its involvement in salt stress in pak-choi is still poorly understood. In this study, we elucidated the function of BcWRKY1 from pak-choi (Brassica rapa ssp. chinensis) in salt stress. The expression level of BcWRKY1 showed the highest in rosette leaves among different tissues and was induced by salt and ABA treatment in pak-choi. Subcellular localization showed that BcWRKY1 was located in nucleus. The transgenic Arabidopsis overexpressing BcWRKY1 exhibited enhanced salt sensitivity and higher H2O2 contents, which were further confirmed by silencing BcWRKY1 in pak-choi. In addition, the expression of ZAT12 was negatively regulated with BcWRKY1 under salt stress both in pak-choi and Arabidopsis. Yeast one-hybrid and dual luciferase reporter assay showed that BcWRKY1 could bind to the promoter of BcZAT12, and BcsAPX expression was activated by BcZAT12. To sum up, we propose a BcWRKY1–BcZAT12–BcsAPX regulatory model that involves in pak-choi salt stress response.
Key message
BcWRKY1 repress the expression of BcZAT12 to inhibit reactive oxygen species scavenging, leading to enhanced salt tolerance in BcWRKY1 silencing pak-choi.
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Acknowledgements
We are grateful to Dr Isabelle Jupin for providing the plasmid pTY-S. This work was supported by National Vegetable Industry Technology System (CARS-23-A-16), Jiangsu Agricultural Science and Technology Innovation Fund (CX (20)2017), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (31272173) and a project funded by the Priority Academic Program Development of Jiangsu Higher Education Institutions.
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Funding was provided by National Vegetable Industry Technology System (Grant No.: CARS-23-A-16), Jiangsu Agricultural Science and Technology Innovation Fund (Grant No.: CX (20)2017), the Priority Academic Program Development of Jiangsu Higher Education Institutions, and the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No.: 31272173).
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SY and YW performed the experiments. DH and YL designed the experiments. CS analyzed data. SY write the manuscript. DH, FC, XH, CZ, TL and YL revised the manuscript.
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Yuan, S., Hu, D., Wang, Y. et al. BcWRKY1 confers salt sensitivity via inhibiting Reactive oxygen species scavenging. Plant Mol Biol 109, 741–759 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11103-022-01272-x
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11103-022-01272-x