Fig. 7

Overexpression of transcription factor SpWRKY33 enhanced drought tolerance in transgenic Arabidopsis plants. a and b Phenotypic characteristics of wild type (WT) and three independent overexpression lines (OE-2, OE-3 and OE-8) in control and mannitol-simulated drought treatment for 10 days, respectively. WT and three independent transgenic lines were plated in per plate, with four seedlings of each genotype. The drought treatments in petri plate were performed five biological replicates. Scale bar: 1 cm. c Semi-quantitative RT-PCR analysis of SpWRKY33 expression in WT and transgenic plants. d and e Statistics of root length and fresh weight of WT and SpWRKY33-overexpression plants, respectively. Values were means ± SD (n = 20). ** on the histograms indicates statistical difference between WT and transgenic plants at P < 0.01. f and g Phenotypic characteristics of WT and SpWRKY33-overexpression plants under normal water condition and withholding watering for 14 days, respectively. WT and three independent transgenic lines were grown in soil block, with four seedlings of each genotype. The drought treatments in soil were performed five biological replicates