Genome-wide identification and expression analysis of the WRKY genes in sugar beet (Beta vulgaris L.) under alkaline stress

School of Life Science and Engineering, Lanzhou University of Technology, Lanzhou, Gansu, China
DOI
10.7287/peerj.preprints.27810v1
Subject Areas
Agricultural Science, Bioinformatics, Genomics, Plant Science
Keywords
Sugar beet, WRKY transcription factor, Alkaline stress, Expression levels, Bioinformatics
Copyright
© 2019 Wu et al.
Licence
This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, reproduction and adaptation in any medium and for any purpose provided that it is properly attributed. For attribution, the original author(s), title, publication source (PeerJ Preprints) and either DOI or URL of the article must be cited.
Cite this article
Wu G, Li Z, Cao H, Wang J. 2019. Genome-wide identification and expression analysis of the WRKY genes in sugar beet (Beta vulgaris L.) under alkaline stress. PeerJ Preprints 7:e27810v1

Abstract

Background: The WRKY transcription factor family plays critical roles in many aspects of physiological processes and adaption to environment. Although the WRKY genes have been widely studied in various plants, the structure and function of the WRKY family in sugar beet (Beta vulgaris L.) remains unknown.

Methods: In the present study, the WRKY genes were identified from the sugar beet genome by bioinformatics. Phylogenetic tree was constructed by MEGA7.0 software. Distribution map of these genes was displayed by MapInspect 1.0. Furthermore, the exon-intron structure and the conserved motifs were predicted by GSDS 2.0 and MEME 5.0.5, respectively. Additionally, the expression levels of these genes under alkaline stress were assayed by qRT-PCR.

Results: A total of 58 putative BvWRKY genes are identified in the sugar beet genome. The coding sequence of these genes ranged from 558 to 2,307 bp and molecular weight varied from 21.3 to 84. Based on the conserved WRKY domain and zinc-finger motif, the BvWRKY genes are clustered into three major groups I, II and III, with 11, 40 and 7 genes, respectively. The number of intron in the BvWRKY genes ranged from 1 to 5, with majority of BvWRKY (27/58) containing three exons. All the BvWRKY genes have one or two WRKY motifs at the N-terminus. Moreover, the expression levels of BvWRKY genes are increased remarkedly by alkaline stress. Our findings extend understandings of the BvWRKY genes family and provide useful information for subsequent research on their functions in sugar beet under alkaline stress.

Author Comment

This is a submission to PeerJ for review.

Supplemental Information

Detailed information of BvWRKY motifs in sugar beet

DOI: 10.7287/peerj.preprints.27810v1/supp-1

Sequences of t he WRKY genes from sugar beet and Arabidopsis.

DOI: 10.7287/peerj.preprints.27810v1/supp-2

The expression data of BvWRKY genes

DOI: 10.7287/peerj.preprints.27810v1/supp-3