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Article|26 Aug 2022|OPEN
PuWRKY31 affects ethylene production in response to sucrose signal in pear fruit
Xinyue Li1 ,† , Wei Guo1 ,† , Mingyang Xu1 , Jiaming Zhao1 , Guan Wang2 , Hui Yuan1 , and Aide Wang,1 ,
1Key Laboratory of Fruit Postharvest Biology (Liaoning Province), Key Laboratory of Protected Horticulture (Ministry of Education), National & Local Joint Engineering Research Center of Northern Horticultural Facilities Design & Application Technology (Liaoning), College of Horticulture, Shenyang Agricultural University, Shenyang, 110866, China
2Institute of Soybean, Heilongjiang Academy of Agricultural Sciences, 368 Xuefu Road, Harbin, 150086, China
*Corresponding author. E-mail: huiyuan@syau.edu.cn,awang@syau.edu.cn
†Both authors contributed equally to the study.

Horticulture Research 9,
Article number: uhac156 (2022)
doi: https://doi.org/10.1093/hr/uhac156
Views: 592

Received: 06 Jan 2022
Accepted: 06 Jul 2022
Published online: 26 Aug 2022

Abstract

The ripening of climacteric fruits is mainly controlled by the plant hormone ethylene. The regulatory effect of sucrose on ethylene biosynthesis in fruits remains unclear. Here we examined ethylene production in two Ussurian pear (Pyrus ussuriensis) varieties, ‘Nanguo’ (NG) pear and its bud sport variety (BNG), which has a higher sucrose content. We found that the peak of ethylene release occurred earlier in BNG fruit than in NG fruit during ripening. The expression of the transcription factor PuWRKY31 was higher in BNG fruit than in NG fruit, and was induced by sucrose treatment. Furthermore, PuWRKY31 bound to the promoters of ethylene biosynthetic genes and upregulated their transcription. Our findings suggest a mechanism by which sucrose regulates ethylene biosynthesis in pears.