title: Evolution of seed storage protein genes: legumin genes of Ginkgo biloba.
abstract: Legumin-like seed storage proteins have been intensively studied in crop plants. However, little is known about the molecular evolution of these proteins and their genes and it was assumed that they originated from an ancestral gene that already existed at the beginning of angiosperm evolution. We have evidence for the ubiquitous occurrence of homologous proteins in gymnosperms as well. We have characterized the major seed storage globulin from Ginkgo biloba by amino acid sequencing, which reveals clear homology to legumin-like proteins from angiosperms. The Ginkgo legumin is encoded by a gene family; we describe two of its members. The promoter regions contain sequence motifs which are known to function as regulatory elements involved in seed-specific expression of angiosperm legumins, although the tissues concerned are different in gymnosperms and angiosperms. The Ginkgo legumin gene structure is divergent from that of angiosperms and suggests that the evolution of legumin genes implicated loss of introns. From our data and from functional approaches recently described it becomes obvious that the posttranslational processing site of legumin precursors is less conserved than hitherto assumed. Finally, we present a phylogenetic analysis of legumin encoding sequences and discuss their utility as molecular markers for the reconstruction of seed plant evolution.
authors.affiliation: Department of Plant Ecology and Systematics, University of Bayreuth, Germany.
authors.forename: K P
authors.initials: KP
authors.lastname: Häger
authors.forename: H
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Braun
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Czihal
authors.forename: B
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Müller
authors.forename: H
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Bäumlein
mesh_terms: D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D001483:Base Sequence; D005075:Biological Evolution; D017931:DNA Primers; D007887:Fabaceae / Q000235:genetics*; D017343:Genes, Plant; D005916:Globulins / Q000737:chemistry / Q000235:genetics; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D005810:Multigene Family; D010802:Phylogeny; D010940:Plant Proteins / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000235:genetics*; D010946:Plants, Medicinal; D016133:Polymerase Chain Reaction; D017386:Sequence Homology, Amino Acid; D012689:Sequence Homology, Nucleic Acid; D014197:Trees / Q000235:genetics*; D000097793:Legumins
chemical_list: D017931:DNA Primers; D005916:Globulins; D010940:Plant Proteins; D000097793:Legumins