Studies on DNA-binding selectivity of WRKY transcription factors lend structural clues into WRKY-domain function.

ABSTRACT: WRKY transcription factors have been shown to play a major role in regulating, both positively and negatively, the plant defense transcriptome. Nearly all studied WRKY factors appear to have a stereotypic binding preference to one DNA element termed the W-box. How specificity for certain promoters is accomplished therefore remains completely unknown. In this study, we tested five distinct Arabidopsis WRKY transcription factor subfamily members for their DNA binding selectivity towards variants of the W-box embedded in neighboring DNA sequences. These studies revealed for the first time differences in their binding site preferences, which are partly dependent on additional adjacent DNA sequences outside of the TTGACY-core motif. A consensus WRKY binding site derived from these studies was u

SUBMITTER: Ciolkowski I 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC2493524 | biostudies-literature | 2008 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature