Biology Department, Bowdoin College, Brunswick, ME, USA.
Front Plant Sci. 2012 May 8;3:88. doi: 10.3389/fpls.2012.00088. eCollection 2012.
The wall-associated kinases, WAKs, are encoded by five highly similar genes clustered in a 30-kb locus in Arabidopsis. These receptor-like proteins contain a cytoplasmic serine threonine kinase, a transmembrane domain, and a less conserved region that is bound to the cell wall and contains a series of epidermal growth factor repeats. Evidence is emerging that WAKs serve as pectin receptors, for both short oligogalacturonic acid fragments generated during pathogen exposure or wounding, and for longer pectins resident in native cell walls. This ability to bind and respond to several types of pectins correlates with a demonstrated role for WAKs in both the pathogen response and cell expansion during plant development.
壁相关激酶（WAKs）由五个高度相似的基因编码，这些基因簇集在拟南芥的一个 30kb 基因座中。这些受体样蛋白包含一个细胞质丝氨酸苏氨酸激酶、一个跨膜结构域和一个与细胞壁结合的不太保守的区域，该区域包含一系列表皮生长因子重复序列。有证据表明，WAK 作为果胶受体发挥作用，既能结合并响应病原体暴露或受伤时产生的短寡半乳糖醛酸片段，也能结合并响应存在于天然细胞壁中的长果胶。WAKs 在植物发育过程中病原体反应和细胞扩张中的作用证明了其结合和响应多种类型果胶的能力。
