Rajesh, M.K.Bharathi, M.Nagarajan, P.2015-02-282015-02-282006Journal of Plantation Crops, 2006, 34(3) : 519-528http://hdl.handle.net/123456789/6232WRKY proteins are plant-specific transcriptional factors associated with regulation of defense responses to both biotic and abiotic stresses. in the present study, degenerate PCR primers were designed to the highly conserved WRKY DNA binding domain and these were used to isolate putative WRKY genes from coconut. Six DNA fragments were isolated using five pairs of degenerate primers and these Were cloned. Sequencing of these cloned fragments was done and their amino acid sequences deduced. Homology search of the deduced amino acid sequences against non-redundant GenBank protein database revealed significant sequence similarity of two of the cloned fragments to known WRK Y genes. The other four cloned fragments showed homology to known stress responsive genes. Cluster analysis based on neighbour-joining method was carried out using the putative coconut WRKY genes with other known WRKY genes. These results demonstrate that PCR amplification with appropriately designed degenerate primers is an efficient approach for cloning WRKY genes.enCoconutWRKY genedegenerate primersPCRcloningArticle