Find in Library

Pineapple (<i>Ananas comosus</i> (L.) Merr.) is an important tropical fruit with high economic value, and its growth and development are affected by the external environment. Drought and salt stresses are common adverse conditions that can affect crop quality and yield. WRKY transcription factors (TFs) have been demonstrated to play critical roles in plant stress response, but the function of pineapple WRKY TFs in drought and salt stress tolerance is largely unknown. In this study, a pineapple <i>AcWRKY</i><i>31</i> gene was cloned and characterized. <i>AcWRKY31</i> is a nucleus-localized protein that has transcriptional activation activity. We observed that the panicle length and seed number of <i>AcWRKY31</i> overexpression transgenic rice plants were significantly reduced compared with that in wild-type plant ZH11. RNA-seq technology was used to identify the differentially expressed genes (DEGs) between wild-type ZH11 and <i>AcWRKY31</i> overexpression transgenic rice plants. In addition, ectopic overexpression of <i>AcWRKY31</i> in rice and <i>Arabidopsis</i> resulted in plant oversensitivity to drought and salt stress. qRT-PCR analysis showed that the expression levels of abiotic stress-responsive genes were significantly decreased in the transgenic plants compared with those in the wild-type plants under drought and salt stress conditions. In summary, these results showed that ectopic overexpression of <i>AcWRKY31</i> reduced drought and salt tolerance in rice and <i>Arabidopsis</i> and provided a candidate gene for crop variety improvement.