Identification of drought responsive Elaeis guineensis WRKY transcription factors with sensitivity to other abiotic stresses and hormone treatments

Background: The ability of plants to withstand and thrive in an adverse environment is crucial to ensure their survivability and yield performance. The WRKY transcription factors (TFs) have crucial roles in plant growth, development and stress response, particularly drought stress. In oil palm, drou...

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Main Authors: Lee, Fong Chin, Yeap, Wan Chin, Appleton, David Ross, Ho, Chai Ling, Kulaveerasingam, Harikrishna
Format: Article
Published: BioMed Central 2022
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author Lee, Fong Chin
Yeap, Wan Chin
Appleton, David Ross
Ho, Chai Ling
Kulaveerasingam, Harikrishna
author_facet Lee, Fong Chin
Yeap, Wan Chin
Appleton, David Ross
Ho, Chai Ling
Kulaveerasingam, Harikrishna
author_sort Lee, Fong Chin
collection UPM
description Background: The ability of plants to withstand and thrive in an adverse environment is crucial to ensure their survivability and yield performance. The WRKY transcription factors (TFs) have crucial roles in plant growth, development and stress response, particularly drought stress. In oil palm, drought is recognized as one of the major yield limiting factors. However, the roles of WRKY TFs in the drought response of oil palm is unclear. Results: Herein, we studied the transcriptome of drought treated oil palm leaf and identified 40 differentially expressed genes (DEGs) of WRKY TFs, of which 32 DEGs were upregulated and 8 DEGs were downregulated in response to drought stress in oil palm. They were categorized into Groups I to IV based on the numbers of WRKY domain and the structural difference in the zinc finger domain. Multiple stress- and hormone-responsive cis-regulatory elements were detected in the drought responsive oil palm EgWRKY (Dro-EgWRKY) genes. Fourteen of the 15 selected oil palm WRKY (EgWRKY) genes demonstrated a tissue-specific expression profile except for EgWRKY28 (Group I), which was expressed in all tissues tested. The expression levels of 15 candidate EgWRKYs were upregulated upon salinity and heat treatments, while several genes were also inducible by abscisic acid, methyl jasmonate, salicylic acid and hydrogen peroxide treatments. Members of the Group III WRKY TFs including EgWRKY07, 26, 40, 52, 59, 73 and 81 displayed multiple roles in drought- and salinity-response under the modulation of phytohormones. Conclusions: EgWRKY TFs of oil palm are involved in phytohormones and abiotic stress responses including drought, salinity and heat. EgWRKY07, 26, 59 and 81 from Group III maybe important regulators in modulating responses of different abiotic stresses. Further functional analysis is required to understand the underlying mechanism of WRKY TFs in the regulatory network of drought stress.
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spelling upm.eprints-1017702023-09-21T03:41:39Z http://psasir.upm.edu.my/id/eprint/101770/ Identification of drought responsive Elaeis guineensis WRKY transcription factors with sensitivity to other abiotic stresses and hormone treatments Lee, Fong Chin Yeap, Wan Chin Appleton, David Ross Ho, Chai Ling Kulaveerasingam, Harikrishna Background: The ability of plants to withstand and thrive in an adverse environment is crucial to ensure their survivability and yield performance. The WRKY transcription factors (TFs) have crucial roles in plant growth, development and stress response, particularly drought stress. In oil palm, drought is recognized as one of the major yield limiting factors. However, the roles of WRKY TFs in the drought response of oil palm is unclear. Results: Herein, we studied the transcriptome of drought treated oil palm leaf and identified 40 differentially expressed genes (DEGs) of WRKY TFs, of which 32 DEGs were upregulated and 8 DEGs were downregulated in response to drought stress in oil palm. They were categorized into Groups I to IV based on the numbers of WRKY domain and the structural difference in the zinc finger domain. Multiple stress- and hormone-responsive cis-regulatory elements were detected in the drought responsive oil palm EgWRKY (Dro-EgWRKY) genes. Fourteen of the 15 selected oil palm WRKY (EgWRKY) genes demonstrated a tissue-specific expression profile except for EgWRKY28 (Group I), which was expressed in all tissues tested. The expression levels of 15 candidate EgWRKYs were upregulated upon salinity and heat treatments, while several genes were also inducible by abscisic acid, methyl jasmonate, salicylic acid and hydrogen peroxide treatments. Members of the Group III WRKY TFs including EgWRKY07, 26, 40, 52, 59, 73 and 81 displayed multiple roles in drought- and salinity-response under the modulation of phytohormones. Conclusions: EgWRKY TFs of oil palm are involved in phytohormones and abiotic stress responses including drought, salinity and heat. EgWRKY07, 26, 59 and 81 from Group III maybe important regulators in modulating responses of different abiotic stresses. Further functional analysis is required to understand the underlying mechanism of WRKY TFs in the regulatory network of drought stress. BioMed Central 2022-01-26 Article PeerReviewed Lee, Fong Chin and Yeap, Wan Chin and Appleton, David Ross and Ho, Chai Ling and Kulaveerasingam, Harikrishna (2022) Identification of drought responsive Elaeis guineensis WRKY transcription factors with sensitivity to other abiotic stresses and hormone treatments. BMC Genomics, 23 (1). art. no. 164. pp. 1-17. ISSN 1471-2164; ESSN: 1755-8794 https://bmcgenomics.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12864-022-08378-y 10.1186/s12864-022-08378-y
spellingShingle Lee, Fong Chin
Yeap, Wan Chin
Appleton, David Ross
Ho, Chai Ling
Kulaveerasingam, Harikrishna
Identification of drought responsive Elaeis guineensis WRKY transcription factors with sensitivity to other abiotic stresses and hormone treatments
title Identification of drought responsive Elaeis guineensis WRKY transcription factors with sensitivity to other abiotic stresses and hormone treatments
title_full Identification of drought responsive Elaeis guineensis WRKY transcription factors with sensitivity to other abiotic stresses and hormone treatments
title_fullStr Identification of drought responsive Elaeis guineensis WRKY transcription factors with sensitivity to other abiotic stresses and hormone treatments
title_full_unstemmed Identification of drought responsive Elaeis guineensis WRKY transcription factors with sensitivity to other abiotic stresses and hormone treatments
title_short Identification of drought responsive Elaeis guineensis WRKY transcription factors with sensitivity to other abiotic stresses and hormone treatments
title_sort identification of drought responsive elaeis guineensis wrky transcription factors with sensitivity to other abiotic stresses and hormone treatments
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