10.1371/journal.pone.0187346 Dayanne Silva Monteiro de Almeida Dayanne Silva Monteiro de Almeida Daniel Oliveira Jordão do Amaral Daniel Oliveira Jordão do Amaral Luiz-Eduardo Del-Bem Luiz-Eduardo Del-Bem Emily Bronze dos Santos Emily Bronze dos Santos Raner José Santana Silva Raner José Santana Silva Karina Peres Gramacho Karina Peres Gramacho Michel Vincentz Michel Vincentz Fabienne Micheli Fabienne Micheli Genome-wide identification and characterization of cacao WRKY transcription factors and analysis of their expression in response to witches' broom disease Public Library of Science 2017 7 TcWRKY genes fungus Moniliophthora perniciosa zinc-finger motif types 61 non-redundant WRKY sequences 10 cacao chromosomes phylogenetic analysis cacao WRKY transcription factors Theobroma cacao WRKY TF family broom disease Transcriptional regulation III response expression 2017-10-30 17:43:28 Dataset https://plos.figshare.com/articles/dataset/Genome-wide_identification_and_characterization_of_cacao_WRKY_transcription_factors_and_analysis_of_their_expression_in_response_to_witches_broom_disease/5552029 <div><p>Transcriptional regulation, led by transcription factors (TFs) such as those of the WRKY family, is a mechanism used by the organism to enhance or repress gene expression in response to stimuli. Here, we report on the genome-wide analysis of the <i>Theobroma cacao</i> WRKY TF family and also investigate the expression of WRKY genes in cacao infected by the fungus <i>Moniliophthora perniciosa</i>. In the cacao genome, 61 non-redundant WRKY sequences were found and classified in three groups (I to III) according to the WRKY and zinc-finger motif types. The 61 putative WRKY sequences were distributed on the 10 cacao chromosomes and 24 of them came from duplication events. The sequences were phylogenetically organized according to the general WRKY groups. The phylogenetic analysis revealed that subgroups IIa and IIb are sister groups and share a common ancestor, as well as subgroups IId and IIe. The most divergent groups according to the plant origin were IIc and III. According to the phylogenetic analysis, 7 <i>TcWRKY</i> genes were selected and analyzed by RT-qPCR in susceptible and resistant cacao plants infected (or not) with <i>M</i>. <i>perniciosa</i>. Some <i>TcWRKY</i> genes presented interesting responses to <i>M</i>. <i>perniciosa</i> such as Tc01_p014750/Tc06_p013130/AtWRKY28, Tc09_p001530/Tc06_p004420/AtWRKY40, Tc04_p016130/AtWRKY54 and Tc10_p016570/ AtWRKY70. Our results can help to select appropriate candidate genes for further characterization in cacao or in other <i>Theobroma</i> species.</p></div>