Expression analysis of WRKY family in response to salt stress in Malus zumi Mats.

Sequence assembly from 58 Malus WRKY ESTs resulted in 37 uniESTs.Malus zumi Mats is a salt-tolerant rootstock of apple,which could survive in 0.6% total salt content of land.Primers were designed in M.zumi Mats according to the 37 uniESTs,semi-quantitative RT-PCR was applied to reveal the expression patterns of MzWRKY gene family in response to salt stress.RT-PCR products of 28 MzWRKY genes were detectable,21 MzWRKYs were up-regulated and 1 MzWRKY was down regulated under salt stress.According to the peak hour,the MzWRKYs were classified into 2 groups.The different expression patterns of MzWRKY genes suggested that WRKY proteins play various roles in response to salt stress in M.zumi Mats.