VvWRKY5 positively regulates wounding-induced anthocyanin accumulation in grape by interplaying with VvMYBA1 and promoting jasmonic acid biosynthesis

Abstract

Wounding stress induces the biosynthesis of various secondary metabolites in plants, including anthocyanin. However, the underlying molecular mechanism remains elusive. Here, we reported that a transcription factor, VvWRKY5, promotes wounding-induced anthocyanin accumulation in grape ( Vitis vinifera ). Biochemical and molecular analyses demonstrated that wounding stress significantly increased anthocyanin content, and VvMYBA1 plays an essential role in this process. VvWRKY5 could interact with VvMYBA1 and amplify the activation effect of VvMYBA1 on its target gene VvUFGT. The transcript level of VvWRKY5 was notably induced by wounding treatment. Moreover,our data demonstrated that VvWRKY5 could promote the synthesis of jasmonic acid (JA),a phytohormone that acts as a positive modulator in anthocyanin accumulation, by directly binding to the W-box element in the promoter of the JA biosynthesis-related gene VvLOX and enhancing its activities, and this activation was greatly enhanced by the VvWRKY5-VvMYBA1 protein complex. Collectively, our findings show that VvWRKY5 plays crucial roles in wounding-induced anthocyanin synthesis in grape and elucidates the transcriptional regulatory mechanism of wounding-induced anthocyanin accumulation.

Acknowledgements

We are grateful to Dr Haifeng Jia at Nanjing Agricultural University for providing the ‘Gamay’ grape calli. The work was funded by the China Agriculture Research System (CARS-29-yc-6), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (31972368), the Major Agricultural Science Projects of Liaoning Province (2023JH1/10200004), and the Science and Technology Program of Shenyang (23-410-2-03).

Author contributions

Z.Z. and Y.G. conceived the experiments. Z.Z. and C.C. performed the experiments. H.L. and C.J. assisted with the research. Z.Z., C.C., and Y.Z. analysed the data. Z.Z. and Y.G. wrote and modified the article.

Data availability

Data supporting the results are available in the article and its supplementary data.

Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no competing interests.

Supplementary data

Supplementary data is available at Horticulture Research online.

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