GmWRKY45 Enhances Tolerance to Phosphate Starvation and Salt Stress, and Changes Fertility in Transgenic Arabidopsis

WRKY protein is a unique transcription factor (TF) and plays an important role in the physiological processes of various stress responses and plant development. In this research, we obtained a WRKY TF gene from soybean by homologous cloning, and named it . is a nuclear protein containing a highly conserved WRKY domain and a C H zinc finger structure, and mainly expressed in roots, flowers and pods of soybean. The quantitative reverse transcription-PCR showed that was induced by phosphate starvation and salt stress. As compared with the wild type (WT), overexpression of increased the adaptability of transgenic to phosphate starvation, which might be related to the enhancement of lateral root development. The phosphorus concentration, fresh weight and dry weight of -overexpressing were higher than those of WT under Pi-sufficient or Pi-deficient condition. Meantime, the expression of phosphate-responsive genes was affected in transgenic Furthermore, improved the salt tolerance and changed fertility of transgenic . Under salt stress, we found the survival rate and soluble sugar content of transgenic were significantly higher than those of WT. In a conventional soil pot experiment, the transgenic produced shorter silique, less and larger seeds than WT, these might be due to partial abortion of pollens. The overall results showed that was not only involved in response to abiotic stress but also related to fertility, suggested that had an elaborate regulatory system in plants.