The Grape VlWRKY3 Gene Promotes Abiotic and Biotic Stress Tolerance in Transgenic Arabidopsis thaliana

Abstract

WRKY transcription factors are known to play important roles in plant responses to various abiotic and biotic stresses. The grape WRKY gene, WRKY3 was previously reported to respond to salt and drought stress, as well as methyl jasmonate and ethylene treatments in Vitis labrusca × V. vinifera cv. ‘Kyoho.’ In the current study, WRKY3 from the ‘Kyoho’ grape cultivar was constitutively expressed in Arabidopsis thaliana under control of the cauliflower mosaic virus 35S promoter. The 35S::VlWRKY3 transgenic A. thaliana plants showed improved salt and drought stress tolerance during the germination, seedling and the mature plant stages. Various physiological traits related to abiotic stress responses were evaluated to gain further insight into the role of VlWRKY3, and it was found that abiotic stress caused less damage to the transgenic seedlings than to the wild-type (WT) plants. VlWRKY3 over-expression also resulted in altered expression levels of abiotic stress-responsive genes. Moreover, the 35S::VlWRKY3 transgenic A. thaliana lines showed improved resistance to Golovinomyces cichoracearum, but increased susceptibility to Botrytis cinerea, compared with the WT plants. Collectively, these results indicate that VlWRKY3 plays important roles in responses to both abiotic and biotic stress, and modification of its expression may represent a strategy to enhance stress tolerance in crops.

Genome-Wide Analysis of WRKY Genes and Their Response to Hormone and Mechanic Stresses in Carrot

“…GhWRKY40 , a cotton WRKY gene, was found to play an important role in the wounding- and pathogen-induced responses in transgenic Nicotiana benthamiana (Wang et al, 2014). The grape VlWRKY3 gene was identified to improve the tolerance to salt and drought stresses and resistance to Golovinomyces cichoracearum in transgenic A. thaliana (Guo et al, 2018). Besides, overexpression of OsWRKY11 could increase the tolerance to heat and drought stresses in transgenic rice seedlings (Wu et al, 2009).…”

Identification of the defense-related gene VdWRKY53 from the wild grapevine Vitis davidii using RNA sequencing and ectopic expression analysis in Arabidopsis

“…‘Kyoho’, respectively, enhanced the resistance of these grapevines to biotic and abiotic stresses [11–15]. The AtWRKY53 gene of Arabidopsis, orthologous to VvWRKY53 , was rapidly induced under drought stress [14] and positively regulated basal resistance to Pseudomonas syringae pv. tomato DC3000 ( PstDC3000 ) in combination with AtWRKY46 and AtWRKY70 [15].…”

The Soybean GmNAC019 Transcription Factor Mediates Drought Tolerance in Arabidopsis in an Abscisic Acid-Dependent Manner

“…It is worth mentioning that under normal irrigation, while H 2 O 2 levels were comparable in all genotypes, the CAT and POD activities were higher in the transgenic lines than WT plants ( Figure 3B,C), which might indicate an acclimation state ready for faster increases of these enzymes in transgenic plants to better prevent H 2 O 2 accumulation when drought occurs, rather for reducing the basal H 2 O 2 levels produced under non-stressed conditions that are required for normal plant development as an important signaling molecule [79][80][81]. Noticeable increases in activities of these antioxidant enzymes under normal growth conditions were also observed in other studies using different kinds of TFs, including the ectopic expression of Pyrus betulifolia PbeNAC1 in tobacco [82] and of Vitis labrusca × V. vinifera VlWRKY3 in A. thaliana [83]. Asterisks indicate significant differences (* p-value < 0.05; ** p-value < 0.01; *** p-value < 0.001) between each transgenic line and the WT counterpart at the same treatment conditions, according to a Student's t-test.…”