The Role of WRKY Transcription Factors in Plant Immunity

作者：Shree Prakash Pandey, Imre E. Somssich · 发表于：PLANT PHYSIOLOGY · 年份：2009 · DOI：10.1104/pp.109.138990 · 被引用次数：1355 · 研究领域：Plant Gene Expression Analysis、Plant Molecular Biology Research、Plant-Microbe Interactions and Immunity

Plants constantly face a plethora of abiotic and biotic stresses in their natural habitat. Adapting to such changes requires a great degree of phenotypic plasticity that is mainly determined by the plant's genome. We currently do not know how plants are able to integrate the multitude of partly synergistic/partly antagonistic environmental signals that enable them to respond properly under any given condition. What has become apparent, however, is that plants are capable of extensive reprogramming of their transcriptome in a highly dynamic and temporal manner. This regulation in response, leading to adaptive plasticity of plants in highly variable environments, is mainly achieved by enforcement of a network of various transcription factors (TFs). WRKY TFs are a large family of regulatory proteins forming such a network (Eulgem and Somssich, 2007). They are involved in various plant processes but most notably in coping with diverse biotic and abiotic stresses. In this update, we will restrict our attention to the role of WRKY TFs in plant immunity. The WRKY TF superfamily consists of 74 and 109 members in Arabidopsis (Arabidopsis thaliana) and rice (Oryza sativa), respectively (Eulgem and Somssich, 2007; Ross et al., 2007). Members of this family contain at least one conserved DNA-binding region, designated the WRKY domain, comprising the highly conserved WRKYGQK peptide sequence and a zinc finger motif (CX4–7CX22–23HXH/C). This domain generally binds to the DNA element termed...