Brassica juncea WRKY12 mediates bolting and flowering by interacting with the SOC1 and FUL promoters.

Yifang HUANG; Yue DONG; Yue YU; Dakun LIU; Qinlin DENG; Yuanda WANG; Dayong WEI; Zhimin WANG; Qinglin TANG

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Brassica juncea WRKY12 mediates bolting and flowering by interacting with the SOC1 and FUL promoters.

Author: Yifang HUANG ¹ ; Yue DONG ¹ ; Yue YU ¹ ; Dakun LIU ¹ ; Qinlin DENG ¹ ; Yuanda WANG ¹ ; Dayong WEI ¹ ; Zhimin WANG ¹ ; Qinglin TANG ¹
Author Information

1. College of Horticulture and Landscape Architecture, Southwest University, Chongqing 400715, China.
Publication Type:Journal Article
Keywords: Brassica juncea; FUL; SOC1; WRKY12; bolting and flowering
MeSH: Mustard Plant/metabolism*; Flowers/growth & development*; Plant Proteins/physiology*; Promoter Regions, Genetic/genetics*; Gene Expression Regulation, Plant; Plants, Genetically Modified/genetics*; Transcription Factors/metabolism*; MADS Domain Proteins/metabolism*
From: Chinese Journal of Biotechnology 2025;41(7):2818-2828
CountryChina
Language:Chinese
Abstract: Flowering and bolting are important agronomic traits in cruciferous crops such as Brassica juncea. Timely flowering can ensure the crop organ yield and quality, as well as seed propagation. The WRKY family plays an important role in regulating plant bolting and flowering, while the function and mechanism of WRKY12 in B. juncea remain unknown. To explore its function and mechanism in bolting and flowering of B. juncea, we cloned and characterized the BjuWRKY12 gene in B. juncea and found that its expression levels were significantly higher in flowers and inflorescences than in leaves. BjuWRKY12 belonged to the Ⅱc subfamily of the WRKY family, and subcellular localization indicated that the protein was located in the nucleus. Ectopic overexpression of BjuWRKY12 in transgenic lines promoted bolting and flowering, leading to significant increases in the expression levels of flowering integrators SOC1 and FUL. Furthermore, yeast one-hybrid and dual luciferase reporter system assays confirmed that BjuWRKY12 directly bound to the promoters of BjuSOC1 and BjuFUL, undergoing protein-DNA interactions. This discovery gives new insights into the regulation network and molecular mechanisms of BjuWRKY12, laying a theoretical foundation for the breeding of high-yield and high-quality varieties of B. juncea.