Identification and Expression Analysis of WRKY Gene Family during Onion Bulb Development

Li Yanwei; Wang Zhenbao; Yang Yanyan; Huo Yumeng; Sun Yaling; Liu Bingjiang

doi:10.14083/j.issn.1001-4942.2025.01.001

Abstract：In order to investigate the function of the WRKY transcription factor family in onion,this study screened and identified a total of 55 AcWRKY gene family members using bioinformatics method based on the whole genome sequence of onion and transcriptomic data of bulb at different developmental stages.Their a-mino acid length ranged from 144 to 683 aa,isoelectric point ranged from 5.11 to 9.65,aliphatic index ranged from 47.14 to 77.24,and all of them were predicted to be hydrophilic proteins.The subcellular localization prediction results showed that the 55 AcWRKY proteins were all localized in nucleus.Phylogenetic analysis showed that the AcWRKY family genes could be divided into three groups of Group Ⅰ,Group Ⅱ and GroupⅢ,and group Ⅱ could be further divided into five subgroups.The WRKY proteins from onion and Arabidopsis were distributed in each group which speculated that the transcription factors from the same group or subgroup might have similar functions.Conserved domain analysis showed that all the AcWRKY proteins had the highly conserved WRKYGQK motif and its characteristic zinc finger structures,and a few members had some amino acid variation in the conserved domain.Gene structure and conserved motif analysis indicated that the number and distribution of exons and motifs were found to be different in different AcWRKY members,and proteins in the same group or subgroup were similar.Analysis results of transcriptome data indicated that the vast majority of AcWRKYs genes were directly or indirectly involved in development and formation of onion bulb.The results of this study could provide reference for further research on the mechanism of AcWRKY gene in onion bulb for-mation.