Plant surface properties are crucial determinants of resilience to abiotic and biotic stresses. The outer layer of the plant cuticle consists of chemically diverse epicuticular waxes. The WAX INDUCER1/SHINE subfamily of APETALA2/ETHYLENE RESPONSIVE FACTORS regulates cuticle properties in plants. In this study, four barley genes homologous to the Arabidopsis thaliana AtWIN1 gene were mutated using RNA-guided Cas9 endonuclease. Mutations in one of them, the HvWIN1 gene, caused a recessive glossy sheath phenotype associated with β-diketone deficiency. A complementation test for win1 knockout (KO) and cer-x mutants showed that Cer-X and WIN1 are allelic variants of the same genomic locus. A comparison of the transcriptome from leaf sheaths of win1 KO and wild-type plants revealed a specific and strong downregulation of a large gene cluster residing at the previously known Cer-cqu locus. Our findings allowed us to postulate that the WIN1 transcription factor in barley is a master mediator of the β-diketone biosynthesis pathway acting through developmental stage- and organ-specific transactivation of the Cer-cqu gene cluster.
CITATION STYLE
Gerasimova, S. V., Kolosovskaya, E. V., Vikhorev, A. V., Korotkova, A. M., Hertig, C. W., Genaev, M. A., … Khlestkina, E. K. (2023). WAX INDUCER 1 Regulates β-Diketone Biosynthesis by Mediating Expression of the Cer-cqu Gene Cluster in Barley. International Journal of Molecular Sciences, 24(7). https://doi.org/10.3390/ijms24076762
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