Molecular evolution and functional divergence of HAK potassium transporter gene family in rice (Oryza sativa L.).

The high-affinity K(+) (HAK) transporter gene family is the largest family in plant that functions as potassium transporter and is important for various aspects of plant life. In the present study, we identified 27 members of this family in rice genome. The phylogenetic tree divided the land plant HAK transporter proteins into 6 distinct groups. Although the main characteristic of this family was established before the origin of seed plants, they also showed some differences between the members of non-seed and seed plants. The HAK genes in rice were found to have expanded in lineage-specific manner after the split of monocots and dicots, and both segmental duplication events and tandem duplication events contributed to the expansion of this family. Functional divergence analysis for this family provided statistical evidence for shifted evolutionary rate after gene duplication. Further analysis indicated that both point mutant with positive selection and gene conversion events contributed to the evolution of this family in rice.

Yang Z ，Gao Q ，Sun C ，Li W ，Gu S ，Xu C ... -  《Journal of Genetics and Genomics》

Genome-wide analysis, evolutionary expansion, and expression of early auxin-responsive SAUR gene family in rice (Oryza sativa).

Small auxin-up RNAs (SAURs) are the early auxin-responsive genes represented by a large multigene family in plants. Here, we report the identification of 58 OsSAUR gene family members from rice (Oryza sativa japonica cv Nipponbare), the model monocot plant, by a reiterative database search and manual reannotation; 2 of these are pseudogenes. The coding sequences of OsSAURs do not possess any intron. Most of the predicted OsSAUR protein sequences harbor a putative nuclear localization signal at their N-terminus. Localized gene duplications appear to be the primary genetic event responsible for SAUR gene family expansion in rice. Interestingly, the duplication of OsSAURs was found to be associated with the chromosomal block duplication as well. The phylogenetic analysis revealed that the SAUR gene family expanded in rice and Arabidopsis due to species-specific expansion of the family in monocots and dicots. The auxin-responsive elements and downstream element are conserved in the upstream and downstream sequences, respectively, of OsSAURs. In addition to the 21 OsSAURs with full-length cDNA sequences and 20 with expressed sequence tags, gene expression analyses of at least 7 OsSAURs by RT-qPCR indicated that the majority of identified OsSAURs most likely are expressed in rice. The transcript abundance of the OsSAURs examined increased within a few minutes of exogenous auxin application with varying kinetics. The present study provides basic genomic information for the rice SAUR gene family and will pave the way for deciphering the precise role of SAURs in plant growth and development.

Jain M ，Tyagi AK ，Khurana JP 《GENOMICS》

The monosaccharide transporter gene family in Arabidopsis and rice: a history of duplications, adaptive evolution, and functional divergence.

Current hypotheses of gene duplicate divergence propose that surviving members of a gene duplicate pair may evolve, under conditions of purifying or nearly neutral selection, in one of two ways: with new function arising in one duplicate while the other retains original function (neofunctionalization [NF]) or partitioning of the original function between the 2 paralogs (subfunctionalization [SF]). More recent studies propose that SF followed by NF (subneofunctionalization [SNF]) explains the divergence of many duplicate genes. In this analysis, we evaluate these hypotheses in the context of the large monosaccharide transporter (MST) gene families in Arabidopsis and rice. MSTs have an ancient origin, predating plants, and have evolved in the seed plant lineage to comprise 7 subfamilies. In Arabidopsis, 53 putative MST genes have been identified, with one subfamily greatly expanded by tandem gene duplications. We searched the rice genome for members of the MST gene family and compared them with the MST gene family in Arabidopsis to determine subfamily expansion patterns and estimate gene duplicate divergence times. We tested hypotheses of gene duplicate divergence in 24 paralog pairs by comparing protein sequence divergence rates, estimating positive selection on codon sites, and analyzing tissue expression patterns. Results reveal the MST gene family to be significantly larger (65) in rice with 2 subfamilies greatly expanded by tandem duplications. Gene duplicate divergence time estimates indicate that early diversification of most subfamilies occurred in the Proterozoic (2500-540 Myr) and that expansion of large subfamilies continued through the Cenozoic (65-0 Myr). Two-thirds of paralog pairs show statistically symmetric rates of sequence evolution, most consistent with the SF model, with half of those showing evidence for positive selection in one or both genes. Among 8 paralog pairs showing asymmetric divergence rates, most consistent with the NF model, nearly half show evidence of positive selection. Positive selection does not appear in any duplicate pairs younger than approximately 34 Myr. Our data suggest that the NF, SF, and SNF models describe different outcomes along a continuum of divergence resulting from initial conditions of relaxed constraint after duplication.

Johnson DA ，Thomas MA 《MOLECULAR BIOLOGY AND EVOLUTION》

Molecular evolution of the MLO gene family in Oryza sativa and their functional divergence.

Liu Q ，Zhu H 《GENE》

Genome-wide analysis of heat shock transcription factor families in rice and Arabidopsis.

The heat shock transcription factors (HSFs) are the major heat shock factors regulating the heat stress response. They participate in regulating the expression of heat shock proteins (HSPs), which are critical in the protection against stress damage and many other important biological processes. Study of the HSF gene family is important for understanding the mechanism by which plants respond to stress. The completed genome sequences of rice (Oryza sativa) and Arabidopsis (Arabidopsis thaliana) constitute a valuable resource for comparative genomic analysis, as they are representatives of the two major evolutionary lineages within the angiosperms: the monocotyledons and the dicotyledons. The identification of phylogenetic relationships among HSF proteins in these species is a fundamental step to unravel the functionality of new and yet uncharacterized genes belonging to this family. In this study, the full complement of HSF genes in rice and Arabidopsis has probably been identified through the genome-wide scan. Phylogenetic analyses resulted in the identification of three major clusters of orthologous genes that contain members belonging to both species, which must have been represented in their common ancestor before the taxonomic splitting of the angiosperms. Further analysis of the phylogenetic tree reveals a possible dicot specific gene group. We also identified nine pairs of paralogs, as evidence for studies on the evolution history of rice HSF family and rice genome evolution. Expression data analysis indicates that HSF proteins are widely expressed in plants. These results provide a solid base for future functional genomic studies of the HSF gene family in rice and Arabidopsis.

Guo J ，Wu J ，Ji Q ，Wang C ，Luo L ，Yuan Y ，Wang Y ，Wang J ... -  《Journal of Genetics and Genomics》