WRKY transcription factors, one of the largest gene families in rice genome, are reported to play important roles during disease resistance and other signaling pathways. We chose five WRKY proteins to survey their expression profiles in the process of leaf growth and the Xa21-mediated Xanthomonas oryzae pv. oryzae (Xoo) resistance responses by Western blotting. The results indicated that OsWRKY13, OsWRKY23 and OsWRKY71 were expressed increasingly with leaf growth till the flowering stage and their expression were declined slightly at filling stage. However, the expression of OsWRKY45 and OsWRKY53 were not detected. In the Xa21-mediated resistance response, OsWRKY45, OsWRKY53 and OsWRKY71 proteins were induced, while the expression of OsWRKY13 and OsWRKY23 proteins were stable. Comparison among the resistance reaction, susceptible reaction and mock treatment revealed that the expression of OsWRKY45, OsWRKY53 and OsWRKY71 proteins had a similar pattern between resistance and susceptible reactions. This result suggested that OsWRKY13 and OsWRKY23 may play roles in rice leaf growth, OsWRKY45 and OsWRKY53 may play roles in rice-Xoo interactions and OsWRKY71 is functioning in both situations.