In silico Identification and Characterization of WRKY Superfamily in Capsella rubella

Abstract

Plants undergo several processes throughout their life cycle such as growth, development and response to environmental stresses which require a series of signaling events regulated by transcription factors. WRKY is one of the most studied transcription factors. In this study, we analyzed 68 genes of WRKY superfamily in Capsella rubella. All the genes were studied for their phytochemical properties which include molecular weight, no. of amino acids, theoretical pI, N-glycosylation site, conserved motifs and homology modeling. A phylogenetic relationship was also established among the accessions by using MEGA6 software. The physiochemical properties revealed the no. of amino acids ranging from 149 (Probable WRKY transcription factor 45) to 1411 (disease resistance protein RRS1) while the molecular weight varies between 17.28 (Probable WRKY transcription factor 45) to 159.39 (Disease resistance protein RRS1). Based on subcellular prediction, all the proteins were predicted to be localized in the nuclear region. In addition, the 68 WRKY proteins analyzed for phylogenetic relationships had shown the existence of one major Clade and one minor Clade. In conserved domain study using web-based software tool MEME, Motif 2 was found to be highly conserved as it is present in all accessions while motif 10 was found to be least conserved i.e. found in only 4.41% accessions. Our result provides a framework for future stress related studies in Capsella rubella in the field of plant biotechnology.