Identification and Expression Analysis under Salt Stress of WD40 Gene Family in Lonicera japonica Thunb.

Li Qidong; Wang Fei; Wang Bin; Li Xuejie; Wang Gang; Yang Sheng; Huang Luyao; Liu Zhenhua; Li Jia

doi:10.14083/j.issn.1001-4942.2026.03.002

Abstract：The WD40 gene family plays significant roles in plant stress response and regulation of second-ary metabolite synthesis in various biological activities.In this study,272 WD40 genes of Lonicera japonica were identified and analyzed by bioinformatics methods,and their expression characteristics were also analyzed under NaCl stress.The results revealed that the 272 genes were distributed across all 9 pairs of L.japonica chromosomes,and encoded 60 to 3 457 amino acid residues.These WD40 proteins had molecular weights var-ying from 6 581.97 to 385 924.83 Da and aliphatic index from 48.23 to 105.76,and most of them exhibited a-cidic,unstable and hydrophilic characteristics.Evolutionary analysis results showed that the 272 genes could be divided into 7 clusters,and cluster Ⅰ to Ⅶ contained 25,37,43,34,37,44 and 52 members,respec-tively.The expression analysis of 10 L.japonica WD40 genes under different concentrations(100,200 and 300 mmol/L)of NaCl stress using real-time fluorescence quantitative PCR revealed that significant changes of expression level were observed in 8 of these genes,among which,6 showed an overall up-regulaing trend,1 showed down-regulation under lower NaCl concentration but up-regulation under higher NaCl concentration,and 1 showed decreasing first and then increasing,suggesting a potential association with salt tolerance of L.japonica.Comparative analysis of these changes indicated that these genes might have multiple functions at dif-ferent stages and states of salt stress,and some feedback regulation mechanisms might exist;they also might play multiple roles in the regulatory network.All these results could lay foundations for further research of the functions of WD40 gene family,and provide references for salt tolerant gene selection of L.japonica.