Genome-wide transcriptome profiling of transgenic hop (Humulus lupulus L.) constitutively overexpressing HlWRKY1 and HlWDR1 transcription factors

摘要

BackgroundThe hop plant (Humulus lupulus L.) is a valuable source of several secondary metabolites, such as flavonoids, bitter acids, and essential oils. These compounds are widely implicated in the beer brewing industry and are having potential biomedical applications. Several independent breeding programs around the world have been initiated to develop new cultivars with enriched lupulin and secondary metabolite contents but met with limited success due to several constraints. In the present work, a pioneering attempt has been made to overexpress master regulator binary transcription factor complex formed by HlWRKY1 and HlWDR1 using a plant expression vector to enhance the level of prenylflavonoid and bitter acid content in the hop. Subsequently, we performed transcriptional profiling using high-throughput RNA-Seq technology in leaves of resultant transformants and wild-type hop to gain in-depth information about the genome-wide functional changes induced by HlWRKY1 and HlWDR1 overexpression.