Molecular Characterization and Expression Analysis of GhWRI1 in Upland Cotton

摘要

Numerous genes were involved in oil metabolism, transcription factors are the key genes, such as WRINKLED (AtWRI1, At3g54320) in Arabidopsis. A homolog of AtWRI1, GhWRI1 (accession number: JF430801), was cloned in present study. Promoter activity analyses revealed that activity elements were existed in the upstream of GhWRI1 initiation codon between -912 similar to -720 bp and -372 similar to -177 bp regions. The putative transcriptional activity domain was localized in the C-terminal of GhWRI1 protein. GhWRI1 was more abundant in high oil content materials and elevated expression with cottonseed development, suggesting the crucial role in seed oil accumulation. Meanwhile, expression level of GhWRI1 was induced under multiple abiotic stresses, suggesting that GhWRI1 might participate in cotton responding to stresses. Overexpression of GhWRI1 increased seed oil content and seed weight in transgenic Arabidopsis thaliana. In transgenic plants, genes downstream of AtWRI1, such as enoyl-ACP reductase (AtEAR, At2g05990), pyruvate kinases (AtPKp2, At5g52920), and pyruvate dehydrogenase subunit (AtPDHE1 alpha, At1g01090) were up-regulated expression two to five times compared with the wild-type. The results suggested that GhWRI1 could be used in regulating oil accumulation in cottonseeds.