Overexpression of the maize WRKY114 gene in transgenic rice reduce plant height by regulating the biosynthesis of GA

Xiu Fang; Chen Bo; Mengjie Wang; Haotian Yuan; Wei Li; Haowei Chen; Qing Ma; Ronghao Cai

doi:10.1080/15592324.2021.1967635

Overexpression of the maize WRKY114 gene in transgenic rice reduce plant height by regulating the biosynthesis of GA

Plant Signal Behav. 2021 Nov 2;16(11):1967635. doi: 10.1080/15592324.2021.1967635. Epub 2021 Sep 9.

Authors

Xiu Fang¹, Chen Bo¹, Mengjie Wang², Haotian Yuan¹, Wei Li¹, Haowei Chen¹, Qing Ma^{1

3}, Ronghao Cai^{1

3}

Affiliations

¹ National Engineering Laboratory of Crop Stress Resistance Breeding, School of Life Sciences, Anhui Agricultural University, Hefei, China.
² School of Life Sciences, Anhui Agricultural University, Hefei, China.
³ Engineering Research Center for Maize of Anhui Province, School of Life Sciences, Anhui Agricultural University, Hefei, China.

Abstract

WRKYs represent an important family of transcription factors that are widely involved in plant development, defense regulation and stress response. Transgenic rice that constitutively expressed ZmWRKY114 had shorter plant height and showed less sensitivity to gibberellic acid (GA₃). Further investigation proved that transgenic rice accumulated lower levels of bioactive GAs than that in wild-type plants. Application of exogenous GA₃ fully rescued the semi-dwarf phenotype of ZmWRKY114 transgenic plants. Transcriptome and qRT-PCR analyses indicated that the expression of OsGA2ox4, encoding the repressor of GA biosynthesis, was markedly increased. Electrophoretic mobility shift assay and dual-luciferase reporter assay indicated that ZmWRKY114 directly binds to a W-box motif in the OsGA2ox4 promoter. Taken together, these results confirm that ZmWRKY114 is a GA-responsive gene and is participated in the regulation of plant height in rice.

Keywords: GA biosynthesis; RNA-seq; ZmWRKY114; plant height; rice.

Publication types

Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

Gene Expression Regulation, Plant
Genes, Plant
Gibberellins / metabolism*
Oryza / genetics*
Oryza / growth & development*
Oryza / metabolism*
Phenotype
Plant Growth Regulators / genetics
Plant Growth Regulators / metabolism*
Plants, Genetically Modified / genetics
Plants, Genetically Modified / metabolism
Transcription Factors / metabolism
Zea mays / genetics*
Zea mays / growth & development
Zea mays / metabolism

Substances

Gibberellins
Plant Growth Regulators
Transcription Factors

Grants and funding

This work was supported by the Program of China Postdoctoral Science Foundation 2018M642506; National Natural Science Foundation of China [31801365]; National Natural Science Foundation of China [31971895]; Anhui Provincial Natural Science Foundation [1808085QC88].