title: The differential expression of soybean [Glycine max (L.) Merrill] WRKY genes in response to water deficit.
abstract: Drought is today, and perhaps even more in the future, the main challenge for grain crops, resulting in a drastic yield reduction. Thus, it is of great interest to obtain soybean genotypes tolerant to water deficit. The drought tolerance trait is difficult to obtain through classical breeding due to its polygenic basis. In this context, genetic engineering is presented as a way to achieve this attribute. The ability to modulate the expression of many genes placed the transcription factors as promising biotechnological targets to develop stress tolerant cultivars. The WRKY proteins form a large family of transcription factors that are involved in important physiological and biochemical processes in plants, including the response to water deficit. In this study, the expression pattern determined by qPCR showed that, GmWRKY6, GmWRKY46, GmWRKY56, GmWRKY106 and GmWRKY149 genes are differentially expressed between a drought tolerant and a susceptible soybean genotype in water stress conditions. The in silico promoter and coexpression analysis indicate that these genes act in a stress physiological background.
authors.affiliation: Programa de Pós-Graduação em Genética e Biologia Molecular, Departamento de Genética, Instituto de Biociências, Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul (UFRGS), 91501-970, Porto Alegre, RS, Brazil. Electronic address: dias.pereira.leticia@gmail.com.
authors.forename: Letícia Pereira
authors.initials: LP
authors.lastname: Dias
authors.affiliation: Programa de Pós-Graduação em Genética e Biologia Molecular, Departamento de Genética, Instituto de Biociências, Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul (UFRGS), 91501-970, Porto Alegre, RS, Brazil. Electronic address: luisaabruzzi@gmail.com.
authors.forename: Luisa Abruzzi
authors.initials: LA
authors.lastname: de Oliveira-Busatto
authors.affiliation: Programa de Pós-Graduação em Genética e Biologia Molecular, Departamento de Genética, Instituto de Biociências, Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul (UFRGS), 91501-970, Porto Alegre, RS, Brazil. Electronic address: maria.zanettini@ufrgs.br.
authors.forename: Maria Helena
authors.initials: MH
authors.lastname: Bodanese-Zanettini
mesh_terms: D001665:Binding Sites; D003681:Dehydration / Q000235:genetics; D020869:Gene Expression Profiling; D018506:Gene Expression Regulation, Plant; D053263:Gene Regulatory Networks; D017343:Genes, Plant; D005838:Genotype; D009928:Organ Specificity / Q000235:genetics; D010940:Plant Proteins / Q000235:genetics* / Q000378:metabolism; D011401:Promoter Regions, Genetic / Q000235:genetics; D013025:Glycine max / Q000235:genetics* / Q000502:physiology*; D014157:Transcription Factors / Q000235:genetics*
chemical_list: D010940:Plant Proteins; D014157:Transcription Factors
keywords: Cis-elements; Coexpression analysis; Drought stress; Expression profile; WRKY genes