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MORC Domain Definition and Evolutionary Analysis of the MORC Gene Family in Green Plants.

ABSTRACT: Microrchidia (MORC) proteins have been described as epigenetic regulators and plant immune mediators in Arabidopsis. Typically, plant and animal MORC proteins contain a hallmark GHKL-type (Gyrase, Hsp90, Histidine kinase, MutL) ATPase domain in their N-terminus. Here, 356 and 83 MORC orthologues were identified in 60 plant and 27 animal genomes. Large-scale MORC sequence analyses revealed the presence of a highly conserved motif composition that defined as the MORC domain. The MORC domain was present in both plants and animals, indicating that it originated in the common ancestor before the divergence of plants and animals. Phylogenetic analyses showed that MORC genes in both plant and animal lineages were clearly classified into two major groups, named Plants-Group I, Plants-Group II and Animals-Group I, Animals-Group II, respectively. Further analyses of MORC genes in green plants uncovered that Group I can be subdivided into Group I-1 and Group I-2. Group I-1 only contains seed plant genes, suggesting that Group I-1 and I-2 divergence occurred at least before the emergence of spermatophytes. Group I-2 and Group II have undergone several gene duplications, resulting in the expansion of MORC gene family in angiosperms. Additionally, MORC gene expression analyses in Arabidopsis, soybean, and rice revealed a higher expression level in reproductive tissues compared with other organs, and showed divergent expression patterns for several paralogous gene pairs. Our studies offered new insights into the origins, phylogenetic relationships, and expressional patterns of MORC family members in green plants, which would help to further reveal their functions as plant epigenetic regulators.

SUBMITTER: Dong W

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6048995 | biostudies-literature |

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Project description:Protein domains are the structural, functional and evolutionary units of the protein. Protein domain architectures are the linear arrangements of domain(s) in individual proteins. Although the evolutionary history of protein domain architecture has been extensively studied in microorganisms, the evolutionary dynamics of domain architecture in the plant kingdom remains largely undefined. To address this question, we analyzed the lineage-based protein domain architecture content in 14 completed green plant genomes.Our analyses show that all 14 plant genomes maintain similar distributions of species-specific, single-domain, and multi-domain architectures. Approximately 65% of plant domain architectures are universally present in all plant lineages, while the remaining architectures are lineage-specific. Clear examples are seen of both the loss and gain of specific protein architectures in higher plants. There has been a dynamic, lineage-wise expansion of domain architectures during plant evolution. The data suggest that this expansion can be largely explained by changes in nuclear ploidy resulting from rounds of whole genome duplications. Indeed, there has been a decrease in the number of unique domain architectures when the genomes were normalized into a presumed ancestral genome that has not undergone whole genome duplications.Our data show the conservation of universal domain architectures in all available plant genomes, indicating the presence of an evolutionarily conserved, core set of protein components. However, the occurrence of lineage-specific domain architectures indicates that domain architecture diversity has been maintained beyond these core components in plant genomes. Although several features of genome-wide domain architecture content are conserved in plants, the data clearly demonstrate lineage-wise, progressive changes and expansions of individual protein domain architectures, reinforcing the notion that plant genomes have undergone dynamic evolution.

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MORC Domain Definition and Evolutionary Analysis of the MORC Gene Family in Green Plants.

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