WRKY Gene Family Drives Dormancy Release in Onion Bulbs

作者：Guglielmo Puccio, Antonino Crucitti, Antonio Tiberini, Antonio Mauceri, Anna Taglienti, Antonio Palumbo Piccionello, Francesco Carimi, Martijn van Kaauwen, Olga E. Scholten, Francesco Sunseri, B. Vosman, Francesco Mercati · 发表于：Cells · 年份：2022 · DOI：10.3390/cells11071100 · 被引用次数：21 · 研究领域：Plant Physiology and Cultivation Studies、Plant Gene Expression Analysis、Postharvest Quality and Shelf Life Management

Onion (Allium cepa L.) is an important bulb crop grown worldwide. Dormancy in bulbous plants is an important physiological state mainly regulated by a complex gene network that determines a stop of vegetative growth during unfavorable seasons. Limited knowledge on the molecular mechanisms that regulate dormancy in onion were available until now. Here, a comparison between uninfected and onion yellow dwarf virus (OYDV)-infected onion bulbs highlighted an altered dormancy in the virus-infected plants, causing several symptoms, such as leaf striping, growth reduction, early bulb sprouting and rooting, as well as a lower abscisic acid (ABA) level at the start of dormancy. Furthermore, by comparing three dormancy stages, almost five thousand four hundred (5390) differentially expressed genes (DEGs) were found in uninfected bulbs, while the number of DEGs was significantly reduced (1322) in OYDV-infected bulbs. Genes involved in cell wall modification, proteolysis, and hormone signaling, such as ABA, gibberellins (GAs), indole-3-acetic acid (IAA), and brassinosteroids (BRs), that have already been reported as key dormancy-related pathways, were the most enriched ones in the healthy plants. Interestingly, several transcription factors (TFs) were up-regulated in the uninfected bulbs, among them three genes belonging to the WRKY family, for the first time characterized in onion, were identified during dormancy release. The involvement of specific WRKY genes in breaking dormancy in oni...