{
  "abstract": "Sweetpotato (Ipomoea batatas [L.] Lam.) vines exhibit strong regenerative capacity, and their blades are rich in flavonoids, making them a promising target for nutritional biofortification. Here, we quantitatively assessed flavonoid contents and antioxidant capacities in blades from 90 genetically diverse sweetpotato genotypes. Integrated metabolomic and transcriptomic analyses identified IbWRKY24 as a key transcriptional regulator of flavonoid biosynthesis in sweetpotato blades. Overexpression of IbWRKY24 in stable transgenic sweetpotato lines significantly increased blade flavonoid accumulation (1.22–2.34-fold) and antioxidant activity (1.29–2.16-fold), whereas gene silencing caused marked reductions in both traits. Mechanistically, yeast one-hybrid, dual-luciferase, and electrophoretic mobility shift assays demonstrated that IbWRKY24 directly binds specific W-box elements in the promoters of core flavonoid biosynthetic genes, including IbCHS, IbCHI, and IbFLS, thereby activating their transcription. Moreover, developmental profiling revealed a strong concordance between IbWRKY24 transcript abundance and flavonoid accumulation in blades (r = 0.806，P < 0.0001). Together, these results establish IbWRKY24 as a positive regulator of flavonoid biosynthesis and provide insights into transcriptional control of specialized metabolism in sweetpotato. This work offers a molecular target for flavonoid biofortification and high-value utilization of sweetpotato blade resources.",
  "abstract_shown": true,
  "affiliations": [],
  "article_type": "research article",
  "arxiv": null,
  "author_total": 12,
  "authors": [
    {
      "name": "Jilong Gao"
    },
    {
      "name": "Ruihua Qin"
    },
    {
      "name": "Qina Lv"
    },
    {
      "name": "Peitao Chen"
    },
    {
      "name": "Chunli Wu"
    },
    {
      "name": "Rong Huang"
    },
    {
      "name": "Yulong Liu"
    },
    {
      "name": "Lina Jiang"
    },
    {
      "name": "Fan Yang"
    },
    {
      "name": "Ruican Yang"
    },
    {
      "name": "Tengfei Zhao"
    },
    {
      "name": "Yufan Fu"
    }
  ],
  "bibtex": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/1jb045w93b1z9.bib",
  "cited_by": 0,
  "doi": "10.1093/hr/uhag216",
  "fulltext_url": "https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC13721128/?tool=EBI",
  "id": "1jb045w93b1z9",
  "issns": [
    "2662-6810",
    "2052-7276"
  ],
  "landing_url": "https://europepmc.org/article/PMC/PMC13721128",
  "language": "eng",
  "licence": "CC-BY",
  "licence_label": "CC BY",
  "licence_source": "article",
  "licence_url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/",
  "metadata_licence": null,
  "native_subjects": [
    [
      "heading",
      "AcademicSubjects/SCI01140"
    ],
    [
      "heading",
      "AcademicSubjects/SCI01210"
    ],
    [
      "heading",
      "Article"
    ],
    [
      "openalex",
      "1312|Plant Gene Expression Analysis"
    ]
  ],
  "openalex": "W7163566166",
  "pdf_url": "https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC13721128/pdf/?tool=EBI",
  "pmcid": "PMC13721128",
  "pmid": "42965050",
  "published": "2026-06-03",
  "publisher": "Oxford University Press",
  "ris": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/1jb045w93b1z9.ris",
  "sources": [
    {
      "first_seen": "2026-10-31T12:21:46Z",
      "native_id": "PMC:PMC13721128",
      "source": "europepmc",
      "url": "https://europepmc.org/article/PMC/PMC13721128"
    },
    {
      "first_seen": "2026-11-03T12:21:52Z",
      "native_id": "PMC13721128",
      "source": "pmc",
      "url": "https://doi.org/10.1093/hr/uhag216"
    }
  ],
  "subjects": [
    {
      "field": "biochemistry",
      "origin": "openalex:1312|Plant Gene Expression Analysis",
      "subfield": "molecular-biology"
    }
  ],
  "title": "The WRKY transcription factor IbWRKY24 regulates flavonoid biosynthesis in sweetpotato (Ipomoea batatas [L.] Lam.) blades",
  "title_text": "The WRKY transcription factor IbWRKY24 regulates flavonoid biosynthesis in sweetpotato (Ipomoea batatas [L.] Lam.) blades",
  "type": "peer-reviewed",
  "updated_at": "2026-11-03T12:21:52Z",
  "url": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/1jb045w93b1z9",
  "venue": "Horticulture research",
  "versions": []
}