Plant WRKY transcription factors(TFs) constitute one of the largest families of proteins involved in biotic and abiotic stress responses. These TFs have a conserved 60 amino acid WRKY domain at the N-terminal and a zinc finger motif at the C-terminal. To examine the relevance of Os WRKY72 in imparting salinity stress tolerance, two indica rice genotypes, Rasi(tolerant genotype) and Tellahamsa(susceptible genotype), were used. In Rasi seedlings at 12 h under 100 mmol/L Na Cl stress, Os WRKY72 expression was up-regulated, whereas in Tellahamsa, it was highly up-regulated at lethal stress. Full-length Os WRKY72 c DNA was cloned from these two rice genotypes for further analysis. We identified a variant, termed as Os WRKY72 b that carries an additional sequence of 111 bp within the WRKY domain. Expression of Os WRKY72 b was higher under salinity stress in Rasi than in Tellahamsa. Disorder prediction of Os WRKY72 b showed that the additional sequence in the WRKY domain is ordered thereby maintaining the tertiary structure that might interact with the major groove of DNA. Prediction of phosphorylation sites in Os WRKY72 b indicated that a few serine residues could be the potential phosphorylation sites. In this study, we firstly reported a Os WRKY72 variant that could have a role in abiotic stress responses.
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