OPEN ACCESS ARTICLE

This Article Free via Open Access: OA OA Full Text Full Text (PDF) Supplemental Data OA All Versions of this Article: 148/3/1189    most recent pp.108.121921v1 Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Services Email this article to a friend Similar articles in this journal Similar articles in Web of Science Similar articles in PubMed Alert me to new issues of the journal Download to citation manager Citing Articles Citing Articles via CrossRef Citing Articles via Web of Science (5) Citing Articles via Google Scholar Google Scholar Articles by Yang, X. Articles by Tuskan, G. A. Search for Related Content PubMed PubMed Citation Articles by Yang, X. Articles by Tuskan, G. A. Agricola Articles by Yang, X. Articles by Tuskan, G. A.

GENOME ANALYSIS

The F-Box Gene Family Is Expanded in Herbaceous Annual Plants Relative to Woody Perennial Plants^1,[W],[OA]

Environmental Sciences Division, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Oak Ridge, Tennessee 37831

F-box proteins are generally responsible for substrate recognition in the Skp1-Cullin-F-box complexes that are involved in protein degradation via the ubiquitin-26S proteasome pathway. In plants, F-box genes influence a variety of biological processes, such as leaf senescence, branching, self-incompatibility, and responses to biotic and abiotic stresses. The number of F-box genes in Populus (Populus trichocarpa; approximately 320) is less than half that found in Arabidopsis (Arabidopsis thaliana; approximately 660) or Oryza (Oryza sativa; approximately 680), even though the total number of genes in Populus is equivalent to that in Oryza and 1.5 times that in Arabidopsis. We performed comparative genomics analysis between the woody perennial plant Populus and the herbaceous annual plants Arabidopsis and Oryza in order to explicate the functional implications of this large gene family. Our analyses reveal interspecific differences in genomic distribution, orthologous relationship, intron evolution, protein domain structure, and gene expression. The set of F-box genes shared by these species appear to be involved in core biological processes essential for plant growth and development; lineage-specific differences primarily occurred because of an expansion of the F-box genes via tandem duplications in Arabidopsis and Oryza. The number of F-box genes in the newly sequenced woody species Vitis (Vitis vinifera; 156) and Carica (Carica papaya; 139) is similar to that in Populus, supporting the hypothesis that the F-box gene family is expanded in herbaceous annual plants relative to woody perennial plants. This study provides insights into the relationship between the structure and composition of the F-box gene family in herbaceous and woody species and their associated developmental and physiological features.

The author responsible for distribution of materials integral to the findings presented in this article in accordance with the policy described in the Instructions for Authors (www.plantphysiol.org) is: Gerald A. Tuskan (tuskanga{at}ornl.gov).

^[W] The online version of this article contains Web-only data.

^[OA] Open Access articles can be viewed online without a subscription.

www.plantphysiol.org/cgi/doi/10.1104/pp.108.121921

^* Corresponding author; e-mail tuskanga{at}ornl.gov.

Received April 28, 2008; accepted August 24, 2008; published September 5, 2008.