AUTHOR=Song Hui , Wang Pengfei , Lin Jer-Young , Zhao Chuanzhi , Bi Yuping , Wang Xingjun 

TITLE=Genome-Wide Identification and Characterization of WRKY Gene Family in Peanut

JOURNAL=Frontiers in Plant Science

VOLUME=7

YEAR=2016

URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/plant-science/articles/10.3389/fpls.2016.00534

DOI=10.3389/fpls.2016.00534

ISSN=1664-462X

ABSTRACT=<p>WRKY, an important transcription factor family, is widely distributed in the plant kingdom. Many reports focused on analysis of phylogenetic relationship and biological function of WRKY protein at the whole genome level in different plant species. However, little is known about WRKY proteins in the genome of <italic>Arachis</italic> species and their response to salicylic acid (SA) and jasmonic acid (JA) treatment. In this study, we identified 77 and 75 WRKY proteins from the two wild ancestral diploid genomes of cultivated tetraploid peanut, <italic>Arachis duranensis</italic> and <italic>Arachis ipaënsis</italic>, using bioinformatics approaches. Most peanut WRKY coding genes were located on <italic>A. duranensis</italic> chromosome A6 and <italic>A. ipaënsis</italic> chromosome B3, while the least number of <italic>WRKY</italic> genes was found in chromosome 9. The <italic>WRKY</italic> orthologous gene pairs in <italic>A. duranensis</italic> and <italic>A. ipaënsis</italic> chromosomes were highly syntenic. Our analysis indicated that segmental duplication events played a major role in <italic>AdWRKY</italic> and <italic>AiWRKY</italic> genes, and strong purifying selection was observed in gene duplication pairs. Furthermore, we translate the knowledge gained from the genome-wide analysis result of wild ancestral peanut to cultivated peanut to reveal that gene activities of specific cultivated peanut <italic>WRKY</italic> gene were changed due to SA and JA treatment. Peanut <italic>WRKY7, 8</italic> and <italic>13</italic> genes were down-regulated, whereas <italic>WRKY1</italic> and <italic>12</italic> genes were up-regulated with SA and JA treatment. These results could provide valuable information for peanut improvement.</p>