Cloning and expression pattern analysis of StWRKY15 gene in potato

SHI Mengxiang; WANG Zheng; CHEN Hao; DING Lili; YANG Zhihui; LI Qian

doi:10.16861/j.cnki.zggc.2025.0287

Abstract：WRKY transcription factors play a crucial role in the signal transduction pathways of plant disease resistance.Potato was selected as the model organism to investigate the properties and functions of StWRKY15.RNA-seq analysis identified one transcription factor,StWRKY15,as being significantly induced by potato early blight.StWRKY15 was suc-cessfully cloned using PCR techniques.The full-length sequence spans 1002 bp and encodes 333 amino acids.Subcellular localisation was confirmed to be within the nucleus.StWRKY15 belongs to the unstable hydrophilic protein family.It has a molecular mass of approximately 33.6 kDa and a theoretical pI of around 9.45.It exhibits the highest homology with CaWRKY15.Both proteins are members of the WRKY family.Analysis of StWRKY15 expression levels in various potato tissues using qRT-PCR revealed the highest expression in stems.The expression levels of StWRKY15 were measured at various time points after inoculation with Alternaria solani.The results indicated a significant increase in StWRKY15 ex-pression at 24 hours post-inoculation,with peak expression observed at 48 hours.This demonstrates that StWRKY15 is strongly induced by potato early blight.Transient overexpression established that StWRKY15 is associated with enhanced resistance to Alternaria solani in tobacco.These results lay the groundwork for further research into the role of St-WRKY15 in conferring resistance to early blight in potato.