Exploring the Intrinsic Disorder of the WRKY Transcription Factor Family in the Cereals

The WRKY transcription factors superfamily are involved in diverse biological processes in plants, including responses to biotic and abiotic stresses. It is also known that WRKYs exert many of its biological functions via interaction with other proteins of the signalling pathway. To understand the potential roles of intrinsic disorder in the functioning of WRKYs, we investigated the intrinsic disorder distribution of WRKYs in O.sativa, S.bicolor, Z.mays, T.aestivum, H.vulgare and A.thaliana and their protein-protein interactions. The analysis revealed that their intrinsic disorder distributions are similar. The data show that hub proteins have a higher disorder content in all species. These findings indicate that the peculiarities of the intrinsic disorder of WRKYs are evolutionary conserved, and therefore could be of crucial for their biological activities. The multifunctionality of WRKYs suggests that these proteins might utilize intrinsic disorder for their various functions.