BACKGROUND The tryptophan-arginine-lysine-tyrosine (WRKY) transcription factors play important roles in plants, allowing them to adapt to environmental conditions that are not normally conducive to plant growth; in particular, drought. There has been extensive research on WRKY transcription factors and the effects of their overexpression in plants on resistance to drought stress. However, due to the materials (the type and species of donor and receptor, promoters) and treatments (the type and time of stress) used, different and often confounding results have been obtained between studies. Meta-analysis is a powerful statistical tool that can be used to summarize results from numerous independent experiments on the same research topic while accounting for variability across experiments. RESULTS We carried out a meta-analysis of 16 measured parameters that affect drought resistance in plants overexpressing WRKY transcription factors and wild-type plants. We found that only one of these parameters was significantly different between transgenic and wild-type plants under drought and control conditions at a 95% confidence interval (p = 0.000, p = 0.009, respectively). Eleven of the sixteen parameters were obviously different in WRKY transgenic plants under drought and control conditions (SV, p = 0.023, SSC, p = 0.000, SOD, p = 0.012, SFW, p = 0.000, RL, p = 0.016, Pro, p = 0.000, POD, p = 0.027, MDA, p = 0.000, H2O2, p = 0.003, EL, p = 0.000, CHC, p = 0.000, respectively), seven of the eleven obviously different parameters showed positive effect (SSC, SOD, Pro, POD, MDA, H2O2, EL), four of them revealed negative effect (SV, SFW, RL, CHC). CONCLUSION We have found that only one of these parameters was significantly different between transgenic and wild-type plants under drought and control conditions respectively, at a 95% confidence interval. And eleven of sixteen parameters showed obviously different of WRKY-overexpressed plants under different conditions (water-stressed and normal), suggesting that WRKY transcription factors play an important role in plant responses to drought stress. These findings also provide a theoretical basis for further study of the role of WRKY transcription factors in the regulation of plant responses to environmental stress.

中文翻译：

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WRKY 转录因子过度表达对植物干旱胁迫反应影响的荟萃分析。

背景色氨酸-精氨酸-赖氨酸-酪氨酸（WRKY）转录因子在植物中发挥着重要作用，使它们能够适应通常不利于植物生长的环境条件。特别是干旱。人们对 WRKY 转录因子及其在植物中过度表达对干旱胁迫抵抗力的影响进行了广泛的研究。然而，由于所使用的材料（供体和受体、启动子的类型和种类）和处理（应激的类型和时间），研究之间获得了不同且常常令人困惑的结果。荟萃分析是一种强大的统计工具，可用于总结同一研究主题的大量独立实验的结果，同时考虑实验之间的变异性。结果我们对影响过度表达 WRKY 转录因子的植物和野生型植物的抗旱性的 16 个测量参数进行了荟萃分析。我们发现，在干旱和对照条件下，在 95% 置信区间内，转基因植物和野生型植物之间只有一个参数存在显着差异（分别为 p = 0.000、p = 0.009）。在干旱和对照条件下，WRKY 转基因植物的 16 个参数中有 11 个明显不同（SV，p = 0.023，SSC，p = 0.000，SOD，p = 0.012，SFW，p = 0.000，RL，p = 0.016，Pro， p = 0.000、POD、p = 0.027、MDA、p = 0.000、H2O2、p = 0.003、EL、p = 0.000、CHC、p = 0.000），11 个明显不同的参数中的 7 个显示出积极效果（SSC、 SOD、Pro、POD、MDA、H2O2、EL），其中四种显示出负面影响（SV、SFW、RL、CHC）。结论 我们发现，在干旱和对照条件下，转基因植物和野生型植物之间只有一个参数存在显着差异，置信区间为 95%。16个参数中的11个在不同条件下（水分胁迫和正常）表现出WRKY过表达植物的明显差异，表明WRKY转录因子在植物响应干旱胁迫中发挥重要作用。这些发现也为进一步研究WRKY转录因子在调节植物应对环境胁迫中的作用提供了理论基础。