Abstract:

In the present study，based on the recently released pepper whole-genome sequences，
CaWRKY gene family identification，gene classification，chromosome location，sequence alignment and
conserved structure domains of CaWRKY proteins were predicted and analyzed with bioinformatics
methods. The results showed that 71 CaWRKY genes were identified which were classified into three main
groups（Ⅰ，Ⅱand Ⅲ），with the second group further divided five subgroups[Ⅱ（a），Ⅱ（b），Ⅱ（c），
Ⅱ（d）and Ⅱ（e）]. A total of 70 CaWRKY genes were mapped to 12 chromosomes，whereas only
CaWRKY70 was not mapped to any particular chromosome. Genome mapping analysis revealed that
pepper WRKY genes were enriched on several chromosomes（1，2，3 and 7），especially on chromosome 1
which encompasses the largest number of 10 CaWRKY genes，while chromosome 4 only contained 2
CaWRKY genes. The pepper WRKYs from each group or subgroup were shown to share similar motif
compositions，and CaWRKY proteins contained 132–869 amino acids and 373 in average. Our results will
provide a platform for functional identification and molecular breeding tudy of WRKY genes in pepper.

Key words: pepper, WRKY, transcription factor, bioinformatic