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WRKY transcription factors play important roles in regulating biotic and abiotic stress responses in plants. Although a plethora of studies have revealed the functions and mechanisms of some WRKYs in various plants, the studies of WRKYs in woody plants especially tree species under different abiotic and biotic stress conditions are still not well characterized. In this study, we selected 20 Populus simonii × Populus nigra WRKY genes based on our previous transcriptome study, and characterized these genes by phylogenetic analysis to investigate their evolutionary relations, then studied their expression patterns under NaCl, NaHCO 3 , PEG6000, CdCl 2 and Alternaria alternata (Fr.) Keissl treatments that mimic the salt, alkalinity, drought, heavy metal and fungal infection conditions. The phylogenetic analysis showed that these 20 genes can be divided into five clades (Groups I, IIa, IIb, IIc and III) and all of their WRKY domains are conserved except for an N-terminal single amino acid mutation in Psn WRKY8. Before conducting quantitative real time PCR calculation, we evaluated five candidate reference genes under different stress treatments, and chose At4g33380-like as the reference gene for salt stress, Actin for alkalinity stress, UBQ for drought stress, TUA for heavy metal stress, and 18S rRNA for pathogen infection stress. The final qRT-PCR analysis indicated that 20/20, 20/20, and 15/20 PsnWRKY s were downregulated under salt, alkali and drought stresses, and 14/20 and 19/20 PsnWRKY s were upregulated under heavy metal and pathogen stresses. Members from the same clade tended to present similar expression patterns. In addition, we observed noticeable changes in the expression of PsnWRKY11 (increased by 41 times) and PsnWRKY20 (increased by 141 times) under pathogen infection condition, implying that these two genes are potentially important for the disease resistance of P. simonii × P. nigra . [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: In this study, the dynamic transcriptome of poplar (Populus simonii × Populus nigra) was investigated under salt stress using Solexa/illumine digital gene expression (DGE) technique. A total of 5453, 2372, and 1770 genes were shown to be differentially expressed after exposure to NaCl for 3days, 6days and 9days, respectively. Differential expression patterns throughout salt stress were identified for 572 genes. Gene ontology classification analysis of these differentially expressed genes revealed that numerous genes mapped to “transporter activity” and “response to stress”. The dynamic transcriptome expression profiles of poplar under salt stress obtained in this study may provide useful insights for further analysis of the mechanism of high salinity tolerance in plants. Furthermore, these differentially expressed genes under salt stress may allow identification of potential genes as suitable targets for biotechnological manipulation with the aim of improving poplar salt tolerance. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Keymessage The study revealed the major biological processes occurred at three developmental stages and identified candidate genes involved in primary vein development of birch plants. Vascular tissues usually mirror the surrounding leaf shape and its development plays a fundamental role in plant performance. However, the information of vascular development in birch trees, especially primary vein development, remains unclear. Therefore, we conducted the anatomical observation on primary veins from leaves at different development stages in Betula pendula 'Dalecarlica'. With the development of primary vein, dynamic changes in mechanical tissue thickness and primary vein diameter were consistent with each other, and the sum of phloem, xylem and cambium thickness was significantly varied. Transcriptome analysis indicated that primary vein development could be divided into three stages, namely Stage I, II and III, which were in aggreement with anatomical observation. Expression of marker genes associated with vascular tissues revealed that pro-vasculature development occurred at Stage I and II, and phloem development occurred at Stage III. GO enrichment analysis of differentially expressed genes (DEGs) showed that shared DEGs at Stage II were mainly engaged in cell division and cell cycle, and shared DEGs at Stage III were mainly engaged in phosphorylation. Decreased cell division and cell cycle as well as activation of lignin biosynthesis might contribute to primary vein development. Combining phenotypic traits, we performed weighted gene co-expression network analysis and identified a cytochrome P450 84A (CYP84A) family gene (BpF5H1). Based on analyses of gene families, expression patterns and yeast-two hybrid assay results, we proposed a potential electron transfer pathway involving BpF5H1 and three cytochrome b 5 proteins during primary vein development in B. pendula 'Dalecarlica'. These results could shed some light on which biological processes occurred during primary vein formation and provide some valuable clues for vascular morphogenesis in woody plants., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2024. Published by Elsevier B.V.)