Journal Article

WRKY transcription factors modulate flowering time in four Arachis species: a bioinformatics analysis

Fang, Xiao, Liu, Lubin, Zhou, Yihui, Song, Hui, Li, Meiran

2024

Overview

Background WRKY proteins are important transcription factors (TFs) in plants, involved in growth and development and responses to environmental changes. Although WRKY TFs have been studied at the genome level in Arachis genus, including oil crop and turfgrass, their regulatory networks in controlling flowering time remain unclear. The aim of this study was to predict the molecular mechanisms of WRKY TFs regulation flowering time in Arachis genus at the genome level using bioinformatics approaches. Results The flowering-time genes of Arachis genus were retrieved from the flowering-time gene database. The regulatory networks between WRKY TFs and downstream genes in Arachis genus were predicted using bioinformatics tools. The results showed that WRKY TFs were involved in aging, autonomous, circadian clock, hormone, photoperiod, sugar, temperature, and vernalization pathways to modulate flowering time in Arachis duranensis , Arachis ipaensis , Arachis monticola , and Arachis hypogaea cv. Tifrunner. The WRKY TF binding sites in homologous flowering-time genes exhibited asymmetric evolutionary pattern, indicating that the WRKY TFs interact with other transcription factors to modulate flowering time in the four Arachis species. Protein interaction network analysis showed that WRKY TFs interacted with FRUITFULL and APETALA2 to modulate flowering time in the four Arachis species. WRKY TFs implicated in regulating flowering time had low expression levels, whereas their interaction proteins had varying expression patterns in 22 tissues of A. hypogaea cv. Tifrunner. These results indicate that WRKY TFs exhibit antagonistic or synergistic interactions with the associated proteins. Conclusions This study reveals complex regulatory networks through which WRKY TFs modulate flowering time in the four Arachis species using bioinformatics approaches.

• Publisher: BioMed Central,Springer Nature B.V,BMC
• Subject: Abscisic acid / Aging / Agriculture / Arachis / Arachis - genetics / Arachis - metabolism / Arachis - physiology / Arachis duranensis / Arachis genus / Arachis hypogaea / Arachis ipaensis / Binding sites / Bioinformatics / Biomedical and Life Sciences / Cadmium / circadian clocks / Circadian rhythms / Computational Biology / Environmental changes / Flowering / Flowering time / Flowers - genetics / Flowers - physiology / Gene Expression Regulation, Plant / Gene regulation / Gene Regulatory Networks / Genes / genetic databases / genome / Genomes / genus / growth and development / Life Sciences / Maximum likelihood method / Molecular modelling / Network analysis / oil crops / Oilseeds / Omics technologies and applications in horticultural crops / Pattern analysis / Phylogenetics / Plant Proteins - genetics / Plant Proteins - metabolism / Plant Sciences / Plants (botany) / Protein interaction / Proteins / Regulation / species / sugars / temperature / Transcription factors / Transcription Factors - genetics / Transcription Factors - metabolism / Tree Biology / turf grasses / Vernalization / WRKY transcription factor