The role of WRKY transcription factors in plants

The WRKY proteins are one of the largest families of transcriptional regulators in plants. Their biosynthesis is<br /> induced during certain stages of plant development and upon pathogen infection. A single WRKY transcription<br /> factor may be involved in the regulation of several apparently disparate processes. Their hallmark is strong<br /> conservation of the DNA binding domain which contains an invariant WRKYGQK amino acid sequence and a zinc<br /> binding motif. However, the overall sequences of individual representatives are highly divergent. Little is known<br /> about the 3D-structure of the WRKY proteins. Up to date there have only been results of structural strudies of<br /> DNA binding domain available. In this review, the biological function as well the structural studies of the WRKY<br /> proteins have been recapitulated.