PJB-2018-111
Genome-wide analysis and expression profiling of WRKY genes in Ginkgo biloba
Yuanbao Shi
Abstract
Ginkgo biloba L, the only surviving tree of ginkgoaceae, has existed for over 200 million years. WRKY transcription factors play important roles in plant growth and developmental processes. Until now, only three WRKY genes have been published in ginkgo. For the purpose, this study provides primary understanding of genome-wide WRKY genes in ginkgo and fundamental clues for further analyses. As a result, 39 WRKY genes were identified in ginkgo using Hidden Markov Model search. According to the alignments and structural features, the predicted WRKY genes were divided into group I-IV. The conversed motif analysis showed that the same groups or subgroups of proteins showed common types and numbers of motifs. Expression analysis exhibited that most genes in group I showed significantly high expression levels, while three genes in group IV showed no obvious expression. In addition, two genes in group II and one gene in group III were expressed only in certain tissues. Nine genes were selected to investigate the expression profiles performed by quantitative reverse-transcription PCR. The result showed that they exhibited differential expression patterns in the five different developmental stages and some of the genes have similar expression levels. Based on the structure features and expression profiles of the identified WRKY genes, we speculate that the functional divergence of the WRKY proteins plays a critical role in plant growth, development and responses to stress.
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