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Arabidopsis thaliana genes encoding defense signaling and recognition proteins exhibit contrasting evolutionary dynamics.

ABSTRACT: The interplay between pathogen effectors, their host targets, and cognate recognition proteins provides various opportunities for antagonistic cycles of selection acting on plant and pathogen to achieve or abrogate resistance, respectively. Selection has previously been shown to maintain diversity in plant proteins involved in pathogen recognition and some of their cognate pathogen effectors. We analyzed the signatures of selection on 10 Arabidopsis thaliana genes encoding defense signal transduction proteins in plants, which are potential targets of pathogen effectors. There was insufficient evidence to reject neutral evolution for 6 genes encoding signaling components consistent with these proteins not being targets of effectors and/or indicative of constraints on their ability to coevolve with pathogen effectors. Functional constraints on effector targets may have provided the driving selective force for the evolution of guard proteins. PBS1, a known target of an effector, showed little variation but is known to be monitored by a variable guard protein. Evidence of selection maintaining diversity was present at NPR1, PAD4, and EDS1. Differences in the signatures of selection observed may reflect the numbers of effectors that target a particular protein, the presence or absence of a cognate guard protein, as well as functional constraints imposed by biochemical activities or interactions with plant proteins.

SUBMITTER: Caldwell KS

PROVIDER: S-EPMC2644955 | biostudies-literature | 2009 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Arabidopsis thaliana genes encoding defense signaling and recognition proteins exhibit contrasting evolutionary dynamics.

Caldwell Katherine S KS Michelmore Richard W RW

Genetics 20081208 2

The interplay between pathogen effectors, their host targets, and cognate recognition proteins provides various opportunities for antagonistic cycles of selection acting on plant and pathogen to achieve or abrogate resistance, respectively. Selection has previously been shown to maintain diversity in plant proteins involved in pathogen recognition and some of their cognate pathogen effectors. We analyzed the signatures of selection on 10 Arabidopsis thaliana genes encoding defense signal transdu ...[more]

PMID: 19064707

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Project description:BackgroundLEA (late embryogenesis abundant) proteins have first been described about 25 years ago as accumulating late in plant seed development. They were later found in vegetative plant tissues following environmental stress and also in desiccation tolerant bacteria and invertebrates. Although they are widely assumed to play crucial roles in cellular dehydration tolerance, their physiological and biochemical functions are largely unknown.ResultsWe present a genome-wide analysis of LEA proteins and their encoding genes in Arabidopsis thaliana. We identified 51 LEA protein encoding genes in the Arabidopsis genome that could be classified into nine distinct groups. Expression studies were performed on all genes at different developmental stages, in different plant organs and under different stress and hormone treatments using quantitative RT-PCR. We found evidence of expression for all 51 genes. There was only little overlap between genes expressed in vegetative tissues and in seeds and expression levels were generally higher in seeds. Most genes encoding LEA proteins had abscisic acid response (ABRE) and/or low temperature response (LTRE) elements in their promoters and many genes containing the respective promoter elements were induced by abscisic acid, cold or drought. We also found that 33% of all Arabidopsis LEA protein encoding genes are arranged in tandem repeats and that 43% are part of homeologous pairs. The majority of LEA proteins were predicted to be highly hydrophilic and natively unstructured, but some were predicted to be folded.ConclusionThe analyses indicate a wide range of sequence diversity, intracellular localizations, and expression patterns. The high fraction of retained duplicate genes and the inferred functional diversification indicate that they confer an evolutionary advantage for an organism under varying stressful environmental conditions. This comprehensive analysis will be an important starting point for future efforts to elucidate the functional role of these enigmatic proteins.

Dataset Information

Arabidopsis thaliana genes encoding defense signaling and recognition proteins exhibit contrasting evolutionary dynamics.

Publications

Arabidopsis thaliana genes encoding defense signaling and recognition proteins exhibit contrasting evolutionary dynamics.

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