Expression Profiles of Arabidopsis thaliana VQ Gene Family in Defense-Related Hormones Treatments

: Several VQ proteins are recently identified as WRKY factors鄄interacting partners in Arabidopsis and in鄄 volved in regulating physiological processes. Searching of genomic databases found that VQ gene family is specific to land plants and these VQ genes encode proteins characteristic of a conserved VQ鄄motif. It consists of 34 representa鄄 tives in Arabidopsis and can be divided into two groups based on the similarity of the amino acid sequences. To un鄄 derstand the functions of Arabidopsis VQ proteins, we examined the expression profiles of AtVQ genes in various de鄄 fense鄄related hormones treatments. qRT鄄PCR analysis revealed that a majority of them were differently regulated in response to salicylic acid (SA), methyl jasmonate (MeJA), or 1鄄aminocyclopropane鄄1鄄carboxylate (ACC). And some members are induced by two of these three hormones. Moreover, four members ( AtVQ3 , AtVQ18 , AtVQ23 and AtVQ24 ) are induced by SA, MeJA and ACC simultaneity. However, there is only one AtVQ gene ( AtVQ27 ) is up鄄 regulated after spraying of abscisic acid (ABA). These results suggest that Arabidopsis VQ genes may be involved in plant defense responses.