title: Computational identification and phylogenetic analysis of the oil-body structural proteins, oleosin and caleosin, in castor bean and flax.
abstract: Oil bodies (OBs) are the intracellular particles derived from oilseeds. These OBs store lipids as a carbon resource, and have been exploited for a variety of industrial applications including biofuels. Oleosin and caleosin are the common OB structural proteins which are enabling biotechnological enhancement of oil content and OB-based pharmaceutical formations via stabilizing OBs. Although the draft whole genome sequence information for Ricinus communis L. (castor bean) and Linum usitatissimum L. (flax), important oil seed plants, is available in public database, OB-structural proteins in these plants are poorly indentified. Therefore, in this study, we performed a comprehensive bioinformatic analysis including analysis of the genome sequence, conserved domains and phylogenetic relationships to identify OB structural proteins in castor bean and flax genomes. Using comprehensive analysis, we have identified 6 and 15 OB-structural proteins from castor bean and flax, respectively. A complete overview of this gene family in castor bean and flax is presented, including the gene structures, phylogeny and conserved motifs, resulting in the presence of central hydrophobic regions with proline knot motif, providing an evolutionary proof that this central hydrophobic region had evolved from duplications in the primitive eukaryotes. In addition, expression analysis of L-oleosin and caleosin genes using quantitative real-time PCR demonstrated that seed contained their maximum expression, except that RcCLO-1 expressed maximum in cotyledon. Thus, our comparative genomics analysis of oleosin and caleosin genes and their putatively encoded proteins in two non-model plant species provides insights into the prospective usage of gene resources for improving OB-stability.
authors.affiliation: Department of Biochemistry, Division of Applied Life Science, Gyeongsang National University, Jinju 660-701, Republic of Korea.
authors.forename: Tae Kyung
authors.initials: TK
authors.lastname: Hyun
authors.forename: Dhinesh
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Kumar
authors.forename: Young-Yeol
authors.initials: YY
authors.lastname: Cho
authors.forename: Hae-Nam
authors.initials: HN
authors.lastname: Hyun
authors.forename: Ju-Sung
authors.initials: JS
authors.lastname: Kim
mesh_terms: D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D002367:Ricinus communis / Q000235:genetics* / Q000378:metabolism; D017124:Conserved Sequence; D019597:Flax / Q000235:genetics* / Q000378:metabolism; D015870:Gene Expression; D018506:Gene Expression Regulation, Plant; D023281:Genomics; D057927:Hydrophobic and Hydrophilic Interactions; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D009928:Organ Specificity; D015388:Organelles / Q000378:metabolism; D010802:Phylogeny; D018515:Plant Leaves / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism; D010940:Plant Proteins / Q000235:genetics* / Q000378:metabolism; D017434:Protein Structure, Tertiary
chemical_list: D010940:Plant Proteins