Importance of FaWRKY71 in Strawberry (Fragaria × ananassa) Fruit Ripening

Abstract

WRKY transcription factors play a nonnegligible role in plant growth and development, but little is known about the involvement of WRKY transcription factors in the regulation of fruit ripening. In this study, FaWRKY71 was identified to be closely related to fruit maturation in octoploid strawberry. FaWRKY71 protein localized in the nucleus and responded to cold, salt, low phosphate, ABA, and light quality in strawberry seedlings. The temporal and spatial pattern expression analysis indicated that FaWRKY71 was expressed in all the detected tissues, especially in the full red fruits. In addition, FaWRKY71 gave rise to the accumulation of anthocyanin content by promoting the expression of structural genes FaF3’H, FaLAR, FaANR, and transport factors FaTT19 and FaTT12 in the flavonoid pathway, and softening the texture of strawberry via up-regulating the abundance of FaPG19 and FaPG21. Furthermore, FaWRKY71 was a positive regulator that mediated resistance against reactive oxygen species by enhancing the enzyme activities of SOD, POD, and CAT, reducing the amount of MDA. Altogether, this study provides new and comprehensive insight into the regulatory mechanisms facilitating fruit ripening in strawberry.

Regulation of flavonoids in strawberry fruits by FaMYB5/FaMYB10 dominated MYB-bHLH-WD40 ternary complexes

“…Red strawberry ( Fragaria × ananassa ) ‘Benihoppe’ and its natural white-fleshed mutant ‘Xiaobai’ were grown in a greenhouse at Sichuan agricultural university, China. Six fruit ripening stages defined as small green (SG), big green (BG), white (W), initial red (IN), partial red (PR), and full red (R) were harvested in December ( Yue et al., 2022 ). The skin (outer red layer including achenes) and flesh (inner layer) were manually separated, then frozen in liquid nitrogen immediately.…”

Transcriptome analysis of fruit development and identification of key transcription factors related to anthocyanin pathway in cultivated octoploid strawberry

“…The research found that WRKY TFs also involve in fruit development (Chen et al 2019). Lei et al (2020) reported that FvWRKY71 regulates strawberry owering, while Yue et al (2022) discovered that FaWRKY71 promotes strawberry fruit ripening through auxin in strawberries. Our study revealed that 10 FaWRKY71 were highly expressed, especially FxaYL_641g0155700 having the highest expression in the red fruit stage.…”

Multifaceted roles of WRKY transcription factors in abiotic stress and flavonoid biosynthesis

“…PbWRKY75 has shown to promote anthocyanin synthesis in pear by binding the promoters of dihydroflavonol 4-reductase ( PbDFR ) and PbUFGT ( Cong et al., 2021 ). FaWRKY71 stimulates anthocyanin accumulation in strawberry ( Fragaria×ananassa ) by upregulating genes in the synthetic pathway [ flavonoid 3’-hydroxylase ( FaF3’H ), FaLAR , FaANR , anthocyanin transporter genes transparent testa 19 ( FaTT19 ) and transparent testa 12 ( FaTT12 )] ( Yue et al., 2022 ).…”