Genome-wide characterization, evolutionary analysis of WRKY genes in Cucurbitaceae species and assessment of its roles in resisting to powdery mildew disease

The WRKY proteins constitute a large family of transcription factors that have been known to play a wide range of regulatory roles in multiple biological processes. Over the past few years, many reports have focused on analysis of evolution and biological function of WRKY genes at the whole genome l...

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Published in:	PloS one 2018-12, Vol.13 (12), p.e0199851-e0199851
Main Authors:	Jiao, Zigao, Sun, Jianlei, Wang, Chongqi, Dong, Yumei, Xiao, Shouhua, Gao, Xuli, Cao, Qiwei, Li, Libin, Li, Wendong, Gao, Chao
Format:	Article
Language:	eng
Subjects:	Abiotic stress Agriculture Airborne microorganisms Analysis Biological activity Biological evolution Biology Biology and Life Sciences Chromosomes Computer and Information Sciences Cucumis melo - genetics Cucumis melo - metabolism Cucurbitaceae Disease Resistance - genetics Domains Evolution Evolution, Molecular Evolutionary genetics Flowers & plants Fruits Gene expression Gene Expression Regulation Genes Genes, Plant Genome-wide association studies Genomes Genomic analysis Laboratories Metabolism Nucleotide sequence Peptides Phylogeny Plant Diseases - genetics Plant Proteins - biosynthesis Plant Proteins - genetics Plant species Plant tissues Polymerase chain reaction Powdery mildew Proteins Research and Analysis Methods Ribonucleic acid Rice RNA Salinity Seeds Soybeans Species Species Specificity Transcription factors Transcription Factors - biosynthesis Transcription Factors - genetics Vegetables
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Summary:	The WRKY proteins constitute a large family of transcription factors that have been known to play a wide range of regulatory roles in multiple biological processes. Over the past few years, many reports have focused on analysis of evolution and biological function of WRKY genes at the whole genome level in different plant species. However, little information is known about WRKY genes in melon (Cucumis melo L.). In the present study, a total of 56 putative WRKY genes were identified in melon, which were randomly distributed on their respective chromosomes. A multiple sequence alignment and phylogenetic analysis using melon, cucumber and watermelon predicted WRKY domains indicated that melon WRKY proteins could be classified into three main groups (I-III). Our analysis indicated that no recent duplication events of WRKY genes were detected in melon, and strong purifying selection was observed among the 85 orthologous pairs of Cucurbitaceae species. Expression profiles of CmWRKY derived from RNA-seq data and quantitative RT-PCR (qRT-PCR) analyses showed distinct expression patterns in various tissues, and the expression of 16 CmWRKY were altered following powdery mildew infection in melon. Besides, we also found that a total of 24 WRKY genes were co-expressed with 11 VQ family genes in melon. Our comparative genomic analysis provides a foundation for future functional dissection and understanding the evolution of WRKY genes in cucurbitaceae species, and will promote powdery mildew resistance study in melon.
ISSN:	1932-6203 1932-6203