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   Location:Home > Research > Research Progress
AtWRKY53 is a drought stress response factor affecting plant growth
Author: Sun Yiding
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Update time: 2015-04-21
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Drought is one of the most limiting and pervasive factors affecting plant growth, often with severe economic impacts in terms of agricultural production. WRKY transcription factors function in response to bio/abiotic stress. AtWRKY53 (AT4G23810), which belongs to the group III of WRKY transcription factors, has been reported to play a central role in senescence regulation and in basal resistance against Pseudomonas syringae. However, the molecular mechanisms underlying plant tolerance to drought stress are still not fully understood because of the complex nature of this response.

    To further clarify the potential functions of WRKY53, Prof. YU Diqiu and his student of Xishuangbanna Tropical Botanical Garden (XTBG) examined its expression profiles more precisely. First, they examined the basal expression of AtWRKY53 by quantitative real-time reverse transcriptase PCR (qRT-PCR). To further investigate the tissue-specific expression of AtWRKY53 in detail, they prepared transgenic pants harboring a ProWRKY53-β-GlucuronidaseGUS construct and examined the WRKY53 promoter activity by histochemical GUS staining. They also measured the induced expression of AtWRKY53 in response to certain abiotic stresses and the results showed that AtWRKY53 expression was strongly up-regulated by dehydration and other osmotic stressors.

    In the study, they found that AtWRKY53 was rapidly induced by drought. To further investigate the role of AtWRKY53 in dehydration tolerance, two AtWRKY53 overexpression lines (53OV-3 and 53OV-5) driven by the CaMV35 promoter were used. The analysis revealed the 53OV plants were hypersensitive to drought stress relative to the Col-0 plants.

      According to their research, the transcripts and protein products of AtWRKY53 accumulated rapidly under drought conditions, indicating that AtWRKY53 was a drought stress response factor. Overall, their data indicated that AtWRKY53 involved stomatal movement via reduction of H2O2 content and promotion of starch metabolism in guard cells.

   The research was supported by the China National Natural Sciences Foundation (91417307).

   The study entitled “Activated expression of AtWRKY53 negatively regulates drought tolerance by mediating stomatal movement” has been published online in Plant Cell Reports.

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Xishuangbanna Tropical Botanical Garden, Chinese Academy of Sciences. Menglun, Mengla, Yunnan 666303, China
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