Functional Analysis of CaWRKY39 Under Phytophthora capsici Infection in Pepper
A WRKY transcription factor gene CaWRKY39 was cloned from pepper(Capsicum annuum L.)inbred line 007EA.The open reading frame of CaWRKY39 was 984 bp,encoding a protein of 327 amino acids,which contained a WRKY domain and a C2H2 zinc finger structure.Amino acid sequence alignment and phylogenetic tree analysis showed that CaWRKY39 had the highest homology with SmWRKY7,S1WRKY4 and StWRKY7 and gene structure analysis showed that CaWRKY39 contained three exons and two introns.Promoter analysis showed that CaWRKY39 promoter included W-box,and cis-acting elements responsive to light,ABA,MeJA,SA and auxin.Subcellular localization results showed that CaWRKY39 was located in the nucleus and cytoplasm.qRT-PCR results showed that CaWRKY39 displayed the highest expression in leaf,followed by stem,root,and other tissues,and its expression level was significantly increased after plant leaves infected by Phytophthora capsici.The function of CaWRKY39 was further studied by VIGS technology.TRV:CaWRKY39-silenced pepper plants were much sensitive to P.capsici infection compared with the TRV:00 control plants.These results of this study showed that CaWRKY39 may be involved in the resistance of pepper to phytophthora blight.