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A WRKY Transcription Factor PmWRKY57 from Prunus mume Improves Cold Tolerance in Arabidopsis thaliana

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Abstract

Prunus mume, a woody perennial tree, is valued for its ornamental traits and has been cultivated for a long history. Low temperature is the main environmental factor restricting the distribution and affecting the growth of P. mume. In plants, some WRKY transcription factors have been reported to participate in regulating cold tolerance. However, there were few researches about functional characterization of WRKYs involving in P. mume cold response. Here, a cold-induced WRKY gene named as PmWRKY57 was cloned from a P. mume cultivar ‘Guhong Zhusha.’ PmWRKY57 protein harboring a WRKY domain and a C2H2 zinc finger motif belongs to Group IIc of WRKY family. The PmWRKY57 protein was located to the nucleus and has transcriptional activation activity. PmWRKY57-overexpresing Arabidopsis thaliana lines showed improved cold tolerance, compared to wild-type plants. Under cold treatment, the leaves of transgenic lines contained significantly lower malondialdehyde content, and higher levels of superoxide dismutase activity, peroxidase activity, and proline content than wild-type plants. Furthermore, the expression levels of cold-response genes such as AtCOR6.6, AtCOR47, AtKIN1, and AtRCI2A were up-regulated in leaves of transgenic A. thaliana compared to those in wild-type plants. This study characterized the function of PmWRKY57 in improving cold tolerance of plants.

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All data generated or analysed during this study are included in this published article and its supplementary file.

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Acknowledgements

This research was financially supported grants from National Key R&D Program of China (No. 2018YFD1000400; 2019YFD1001500) and the key research and development program of Zhejiang Province (2021C02071).

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  1. Yiguang Wang and Bin Dong have contributed equally to this work.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Zhejiang Provincial Key Laboratory of Germplasm Innovation and Utilization for Garden Plants, Key Laboratory of National Forestry and Grassland Administration on Germplasm Innovation and Utilization for Southern Garden Plants, Department of Ornamental Horticulture, School of Landscape Architecture, Zhejiang Agriculture and Forestry University, Hangzhou, 311300, Zhejiang, China

    Yiguang Wang, Bin Dong, Nannan Wang, Zifei Zheng, Liyuan Yang, Shiwei Zhong, Qiu Fang, Zheng Xiao & Hongbo Zhao

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  1. Yiguang Wang
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  2. Bin Dong
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Correspondence to Hongbo Zhao.

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Wang, Y., Dong, B., Wang, N. et al. A WRKY Transcription Factor PmWRKY57 from Prunus mume Improves Cold Tolerance in Arabidopsis thaliana. Mol Biotechnol 65, 1359–1368 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12033-022-00645-3

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