Over the past three decades, WRKY transcription factors have been identified as central regulators of plant stress-responsive translational networks. Early Studies in the mid-1990s identified WRKY proteins as pathogen-responsive transcriptional factors in Arabidopsis thaliana, and their domain structure, DNA-binding specificity, and role in salicylic acid-mediated defense signaling pathways were revealed. The further expansion of genomic resources following the year 2010 enabled the identification of expanded WRKY gene families in major crops, which exhibited significant levels of gene duplication, divergence, and stress-responsive expression. Despite the present rapid advancement, the use of WRKY-based genetic manipulation strategies to improve crop performance has been inconsistent. This review integrates the previous thirty years of WRKY research from a translational standpoint. This review is organized around three interconnected themes: the bibliometric data, which reveal changes in methodology, species bias, and stress imbalance in the literature. Next, we look at the conserved regulatory features revealed in Arabidopsis, such as autoregulation, WRKY gene cross-regulation, and hormone regulation. The proliferation of WRKY gene families in polyploid agricultural species is also discussed from the standpoint of gene duplication and redundancy. Finally, we examine the structural hurdles to translational success by contrasting successful and unsuccessful translation initiatives. Finally, we propose a network-centric approach to future WRKY research that focuses on combinatorial perturbation, quantitative modulation, and field validation. Future progress will depend on understanding how WRKY regulatory logic can be harnessed to enhance stress resilience while maintaining productivity in stress responses; the essential question now is how WRKY's regulatory logic might be used to improve stress tolerance while preserving plant productivity.
M. Hammad, Shuh Sherazi, J. Ahmad et al.· Journal of Life and Social S...· 0 citations
The biotin carboxylase carrier (BCCP) is an essential component of the acetyl-CoA Carboxylase complex (ACCase), responsible for catalyzing the initial reaction of fatty acid synthesis and therefore is crucial for plant growth, development, and production of oil. Sunflower (Helianthus annuus L.) is an economically important oilseed crop; however, a genome-wide analysis of the BCCP gene family in this crop has not been reported. In this study, a genome-wide analysis of the BCCP gene family in H. annus was performed to determine its evolutionary history, duplication events, and genomic structures and predict potential functions. A total of ten HaBCCP genes were identified to be unevenly distributed across the eight sunflower chromosomes, revealing a dispersed genomic distribution largely driven by segmental duplication. Phylogenetic clustering of the BCCP genes into three distinct clades suggested that the diversification of the BCCP gene family occurred before species divergence and that the sunflower BCCP genes are orthologous to members from Arabidopsis thaliana, Brassica juncea, Gossypium hirsutum, Oryza sativa, Glycine max, and Solanum tuberosum. The Domain and Motif analysis identified highly conserved catalytic regions among numerous HaBCCP genes, while structural divergence in some genes revealed lineage-specific functional specialization. Subcellular localization analysis revealed that the majority of the BCCP proteins are targeted to chloroplasts or plastids, in line with their role in fatty acid biosynthesis, while the targeting of the other members to the cytoplasm, mitochondria, endoplasmic reticulum, and nucleus suggested wider functional diversification within the family. The cis-regulatory elements analysis revealed an abundant amount of these elements involved in hormonal signaling, light responsiveness, stress responsiveness, and development, suggesting that the HaBCCP genes are regulating diverse physiological processes. Ka/Ks analysis showed that duplicated HaBCCP gene pairs have been subjected to strong purifying selection, indicating that the function of this gene family has been conserved despite gene duplications. Additionally, intra-genomic synteny analysis confirmed segmental duplication as the primary driver of family evolution, and protein-protein interaction analysis identified a closely coordinated interaction network with HaBCCP3 and HaBCCP10 as the hub proteins. In summary, this study offers the first glimpse of the evolutionary, structural, and functional importance of the BCCP gene family in sunflower, revealing that duplication has led to family expansion while critical metabolic functions in fatty acid synthesis have been preserved. This work provides a solid genomic foundation for future functional studies of the BCCP genes and also provides potential targets for enhancing oil production and metabolic efficiency in sunflower.
A. Sanam, H. Ahmed, J. Ahmad et al.· Journal of Life and Social S...· 0 citations
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