Genome Identification and Characterization of WRKY Transcription Factor Gene Family in Mandarin (Citrus reticulata)

WRKY proteins are an important group of transcription factors (TFs) gene family and were identified primarily in plants. TFs play vital roles modulating expression when plants face detrimental effects due to the environment. In current study, we focused on using mandarin citrus (Citrus reticulata) genome understand impact extraction alleles mining mandarins. The C. reticulata 46 CrWRKY genes that classified into three main groups (G1, G2, G3) further with five subclasses (IIa, IIb, IIc, Iid, IIe) G2 group, all presented 29 scaffolds representing numerous segmental duplications 100% events established. Multiple sequence analysis predicted presence “WRKYGQK” domain metal-chelating zinc-finger motif C2H2 45 genes, while was replaced “WRKYGKK” only CrWRKY20. comparative relationship other plant species dual synteny revealed divergence between grandis occurred after evolutionary clementine, sinensis, medica, ichangensis. possible functions mitigating environmental cis-regulatory elements silico RNAseq analysis, for development These results provide a robust platform absence knowledge functional identification from key use improve desirable agronomic consumer-driven fruit quality traits mandarins related species.