title: Germin-like protein gene family of a moss, Physcomitrella patens, phylogenetically falls into two characteristic new clades.
abstract: We identified 77 EST clones encoding germin-like proteins (GLPs) from a moss, Physcomitrella patens in a database search. These Physcomitrella GLPs ( PpGLP s) were separated into seven groups based on DNA sequence homology. Phylogenetic analysis showed that these groups were divided into two novel clades clearly distinguishable from higher plant germins and GLPs, named bryophyte subfamilies 1 and 2. PpGLPs belonging to bryophyte subfamilies 1 lacked two cysteines at the conserved positions observed in higher plant germins or GLPs. PpGLPs belonging to bryophyte subfamily 2 contained two cysteines as observed in higher plant germins and GLPs. In bryophyte subfamily 1, 12 amino acids, in which one of two cysteines is included, were deleted between boxes A and B. Further, we determined the genomic structure of all of seven PpGLP genes. The sequences of PpGLP s of bryophyte subfamily 1 contained one or two introns, whereas those of bryophyte subfamily 2 contained no introns. Other GLPs from bryophytes, a liverwort GLP from Marchantia polymorpha , and two moss GLPs from Barbula unguiculata and Ceratodon purpureus also fell into bryophyte subfamily 1 and bryophyte subfamily 2, respectively. No higher plant germins and GLPs were grouped into the bryophyte subfamilies 1 and 2 by our analysis. Moreover, we revealed that PpGLP6 had manganese-containing extracellular superoxide dismutase activity. These results indicated that bryophyte possess characteristic GLPs, which phylogenetically are clearly distinguishable from higher plant GLPs.
authors.affiliation: Department of Biological Science, Graduate School of Science, Hiroshima University, Kagamiyama 1-3-1, Higashi-Hiroshima, 739-8526, Japan. bozikun@hiroshima-u.ac.jp
authors.forename: Masaru
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Nakata
authors.forename: Yayoi
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Watanabe
authors.forename: Yoko
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Sakurai
authors.forename: Yuka
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Hashimoto
authors.forename: Masahiro
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Matsuzaki
authors.forename: Yohsuke
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Takahashi
authors.forename: Toshio
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Satoh
mesh_terms: D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D015139:Blotting, Southern; D019068:Bryopsida / Q000235:genetics*; D003001:Cloning, Molecular; D018076:DNA, Complementary / Q000737:chemistry / Q000235:genetics; D018744:DNA, Plant / Q000737:chemistry / Q000235:genetics; D004591:Electrophoresis, Polyacrylamide Gel; D020224:Expressed Sequence Tags; D006023:Glycoproteins / Q000235:genetics* / Q000302:isolation & purification / Q000378:metabolism; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D005810:Multigene Family / Q000235:genetics*; D010088:Oxidoreductases / Q000235:genetics* / Q000302:isolation & purification / Q000378:metabolism; D010802:Phylogeny; D010940:Plant Proteins / Q000235:genetics* / Q000302:isolation & purification / Q000378:metabolism; D016415:Sequence Alignment; D017422:Sequence Analysis, DNA; D017386:Sequence Homology, Amino Acid; D013482:Superoxide Dismutase / Q000302:isolation & purification / Q000378:metabolism
chemical_list: D018076:DNA, Complementary; D018744:DNA, Plant; D006023:Glycoproteins; D010940:Plant Proteins; D010088:Oxidoreductases; D013482:Superoxide Dismutase; C020598:oxalate oxidase