title: Ectopic expression of a WRKY homolog from Glycine soja alters flowering time in Arabidopsis.
abstract: Flowering is a critical event in the life cycle of plants; the WRKY-type transcription factors are reported to be involved in many developmental processes sunch as trichome development and epicuticular wax loading, but whether they are involved in flowering time regulation is still unknown. Within this study, we provide clear evidence that GsWRKY20, a member of WRKY gene family from wild soybean, is involved in controlling plant flowering time. Expression of GsWRKY20 was abundant in the shoot tips and inflorescence meristems of wild soybean. Phenotypic analysis showed that GsWRKY20 over-expression lines flowered earlier than the wild-type plants under all conditions: long-day and short-day photoperiods, vernalization, or exogenous GA3 application, indicating that GsWRKY20 may mainly be involved in an autonomous flowering pathway. Further analyses by qRT-PCR and microarray suggests that GsWRKY20 accelerating plant flowering might primarily be through the regulation of flowering-related genes (i.e., FLC, FT, SOC1 and CO) and floral meristem identity genes (i.e., AP1, SEP3, AP3, PI and AG). Our results provide the evidence demonstrating the effectiveness of manipulating GsWRKY20 for altering plant flowering time.
authors.affiliation: Plant Bioengineering Laboratory, Northeast Agricultural University, Harbin, Heilong Jiang, China.
authors.forename: Xiao
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Luo
authors.forename: Xiaoli
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Sun
authors.forename: Baohui
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.forename: Dan
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Zhu
authors.forename: Xi
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Bai
authors.forename: Hua
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Cai
authors.forename: Wei
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Ji
authors.forename: Lei
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Cao
authors.forename: Jing
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Wu
authors.forename: Mingchao
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.forename: Xiaodong
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Ding
authors.forename: Yanming
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Zhu
mesh_terms: D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D017360:Arabidopsis / Q000235:genetics* / Q000502:physiology*; D035264:Flowers; D018506:Gene Expression Regulation, Plant; D017343:Genes, Plant; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D010940:Plant Proteins / Q000737:chemistry / Q000235:genetics; D060888:Real-Time Polymerase Chain Reaction; D017386:Sequence Homology, Amino Acid; D013025:Glycine max / Q000235:genetics*
chemical_list: D010940:Plant Proteins