The monosaccharide transporter gene family in land plants is ancient and shows differential subfamily expression and expansion across lineages

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>In plants, tandem, segmental and whole-genome duplications are prevalent, resulting in large numbers of duplicate loci. Recent studies suggest that duplicate genes diverge predominantly through the partitioning of expression and that...

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Main Authors: Thomas Michael A, Hill Jeffrey P, Johnson Deborah A
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: BMC 2006-08-01
Series:BMC Evolutionary Biology
Online Access:http://www.biomedcentral.com/1471-2148/6/64
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spelling doaj-3fe5198626ca4b44a11d4aa5bf0154452021-09-02T03:01:56ZengBMCBMC Evolutionary Biology1471-21482006-08-01616410.1186/1471-2148-6-64The monosaccharide transporter gene family in land plants is ancient and shows differential subfamily expression and expansion across lineagesThomas Michael AHill Jeffrey PJohnson Deborah A<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>In plants, tandem, segmental and whole-genome duplications are prevalent, resulting in large numbers of duplicate loci. Recent studies suggest that duplicate genes diverge predominantly through the partitioning of expression and that breadth of gene expression is related to the rate of gene duplication and protein sequence evolution.</p> <p>Here, we utilize expressed sequence tag (EST) data to study gene duplication and expression patterns in the monosaccharide transporter (MST) gene family across the land plants. In <it>Arabidopsis</it>, there are 53 MST genes that form seven distinct subfamilies. We created profile hidden Markov models of each subfamily and searched EST databases representing diverse land plant lineages to address the following questions: 1) Are homologs of each <it>Arabidopsis </it>subfamily present in the earliest land plants? 2) Do expression patterns among subfamilies and individual genes within subfamilies differ across lineages? 3) Has gene duplication within each lineage resulted in lineage-specific expansion patterns? We also looked for correlations between relative EST database representation in <it>Arabidopsis </it>and similarity to orthologs in early lineages.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Homologs of all seven MST subfamilies were present in land plants at least 400 million years ago. Subfamily expression levels vary across lineages with greater relative expression of the STP, ERD6-like, INT and PLT subfamilies in the vascular plants. In the large EST databases of the moss, gymnosperm, monocot and eudicot lineages, EST contig construction reveals that MST subfamilies have experienced lineage-specific expansions. Large subfamily expansions appear to be due to multiple gene duplications arising from single ancestral genes. In <it>Arabidopsis</it>, one or a few genes within most subfamilies have much higher EST database representation than others. Most highly represented (broadly expressed) genes in <it>Arabidopsis </it>have best match orthologs in early divergent lineages.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>The seven subfamilies of the <it>Arabidopsis </it>MST gene family are ancient in land plants and show differential subfamily expression and lineage-specific subfamily expansions. Patterns of gene expression in <it>Arabidopsis </it>and correlation of highly represented genes with best match homologs in early lineages suggests that broadly expressed genes are often highly conserved, and that most genes have more limited expression.</p> http://www.biomedcentral.com/1471-2148/6/64
collection DOAJ
language English
format Article
sources DOAJ
author Thomas Michael A
Hill Jeffrey P
Johnson Deborah A
spellingShingle Thomas Michael A
Hill Jeffrey P
Johnson Deborah A
The monosaccharide transporter gene family in land plants is ancient and shows differential subfamily expression and expansion across lineages
BMC Evolutionary Biology
author_facet Thomas Michael A
Hill Jeffrey P
Johnson Deborah A
author_sort Thomas Michael A
title The monosaccharide transporter gene family in land plants is ancient and shows differential subfamily expression and expansion across lineages
title_short The monosaccharide transporter gene family in land plants is ancient and shows differential subfamily expression and expansion across lineages
title_full The monosaccharide transporter gene family in land plants is ancient and shows differential subfamily expression and expansion across lineages
title_fullStr The monosaccharide transporter gene family in land plants is ancient and shows differential subfamily expression and expansion across lineages
title_full_unstemmed The monosaccharide transporter gene family in land plants is ancient and shows differential subfamily expression and expansion across lineages
title_sort monosaccharide transporter gene family in land plants is ancient and shows differential subfamily expression and expansion across lineages
publisher BMC
series BMC Evolutionary Biology
issn 1471-2148
publishDate 2006-08-01
description <p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>In plants, tandem, segmental and whole-genome duplications are prevalent, resulting in large numbers of duplicate loci. Recent studies suggest that duplicate genes diverge predominantly through the partitioning of expression and that breadth of gene expression is related to the rate of gene duplication and protein sequence evolution.</p> <p>Here, we utilize expressed sequence tag (EST) data to study gene duplication and expression patterns in the monosaccharide transporter (MST) gene family across the land plants. In <it>Arabidopsis</it>, there are 53 MST genes that form seven distinct subfamilies. We created profile hidden Markov models of each subfamily and searched EST databases representing diverse land plant lineages to address the following questions: 1) Are homologs of each <it>Arabidopsis </it>subfamily present in the earliest land plants? 2) Do expression patterns among subfamilies and individual genes within subfamilies differ across lineages? 3) Has gene duplication within each lineage resulted in lineage-specific expansion patterns? We also looked for correlations between relative EST database representation in <it>Arabidopsis </it>and similarity to orthologs in early lineages.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Homologs of all seven MST subfamilies were present in land plants at least 400 million years ago. Subfamily expression levels vary across lineages with greater relative expression of the STP, ERD6-like, INT and PLT subfamilies in the vascular plants. In the large EST databases of the moss, gymnosperm, monocot and eudicot lineages, EST contig construction reveals that MST subfamilies have experienced lineage-specific expansions. Large subfamily expansions appear to be due to multiple gene duplications arising from single ancestral genes. In <it>Arabidopsis</it>, one or a few genes within most subfamilies have much higher EST database representation than others. Most highly represented (broadly expressed) genes in <it>Arabidopsis </it>have best match orthologs in early divergent lineages.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>The seven subfamilies of the <it>Arabidopsis </it>MST gene family are ancient in land plants and show differential subfamily expression and lineage-specific subfamily expansions. Patterns of gene expression in <it>Arabidopsis </it>and correlation of highly represented genes with best match homologs in early lineages suggests that broadly expressed genes are often highly conserved, and that most genes have more limited expression.</p>
url http://www.biomedcentral.com/1471-2148/6/64
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