| Summary: | WRKY transcription factors play critical roles in the physiological processes of plants. Although the roles of WRKYs have been characterized in some model plants, their roles in woody plants, especially wintersweet (<i>Chimonanthus praecox</i>), are largely unclear. In this study, a wintersweet WRKY gene named <i>CpWRKY75</i> belonging to group IIc was isolated and its characteristics were identified. CpWRKY75 is a nucleus-localized protein, and exhibited no transcriptional activation activity in yeast. <i>CpWRKY75</i> was highly expressed in flowers at different bloom stages. Ectopic expression of <i>CpWRKY75</i> significantly promoted the flowering time of transgenic Arabidopsis (<i>Arabidopsis thaliana</i>), as determined by the rosette leaf number and first flower open time. The expression levels of flowering-related genes were quantified by qRT-PCR, and the results suggested that <i>CpWRKY75</i> had obvious influence on the expression level of <i>MICRORNA156C</i> (<i>MIR156C</i>), <i>SQUAMOSA PROMOTER BINDING PROTEIN-LIKE</i><i>3</i> (<i>SPL3</i>) and <i>SQUAMOSA PROMOTER BINDING PROTEIN-LIKE 9</i> (<i>SPL9</i>), <i>FLOWERING LOCUS T</i> (<i>FT</i>), <i>LEAFY</i> (<i>LFY</i>), <i>SUPPRESSOR OF OVEREXPRESSION OF CO 1</i> (<i>SOC1</i>), <i>APETALA1</i> (<i>AP1</i>), <i>CAULIFLOWER</i> (<i>CAL</i>), and <i>FRUITFULL</i> (<i>FUL</i>). These results suggest that <i>CpWRKY75</i> might have a flowering time regulation function, and additionally provide a new gene resource for the genetic engineering of woody flowering plants.
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