title: The CEP family in land plants: evolutionary analyses, expression studies, and role in Arabidopsis shoot development.
abstract: In Arabidopsis, more than 1000 putative small signalling peptides have been predicted, but very few have been functionally characterized. One class of small post-translationally modified signalling peptides is the C-TERMINALLY ENCODED PEPTIDE (CEP) family, of which one member has been shown to be involved in regulating root architecture. This work applied a bioinformatics approach to identify more members of the CEP family. It identified 10 additional members and revealed that this family only emerged in flowering plants and was absent from extant members of more primitive plants. The data suggest that the CEP proteins form two subgroups according to the CEP domain. This study further provides an overview of specific CEP expression patterns that offers a comprehensive framework to study the role of the CEP signalling peptides in plant development. For example, expression patterns point to a role in aboveground tissues which was corroborated by the analysis of transgenic lines with perturbed CEP levels. These results form the basis for further exploration of the mechanisms underlying this family of peptides and suggest their putative roles in distinct developmental events of higher plants.
authors.affiliation: Department of Plant Systems Biology, VIB, Technologiepark 927, B-9052 Ghent, Belgium.
authors.forename: Ianto
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Roberts
authors.forename: Stephanie
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Smith
authors.forename: Bert
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: De Rybel
authors.forename: Jana
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Van Den Broeke
authors.forename: Wouter
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Smet
authors.forename: Sarah
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: De Cokere
authors.forename: Marieke
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Mispelaere
authors.forename: Ive
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: De Smet
authors.forename: Tom
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Beeckman
mesh_terms: D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D017360:Arabidopsis / Q000166:cytology / Q000187:drug effects / Q000235:genetics* / Q000254:growth & development; D029681:Arabidopsis Proteins / Q000235:genetics* / Q000378:metabolism; D005075:Biological Evolution; D019669:Embryophyta / Q000166:cytology / Q000187:drug effects / Q000235:genetics / Q000254:growth & development; D018506:Gene Expression Regulation, Plant; D019684:Magnoliopsida / Q000166:cytology / Q000187:drug effects / Q000235:genetics / Q000254:growth & development; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D005810:Multigene Family; D010455:Peptides / Q000235:genetics* / Q000378:metabolism; D010641:Phenotype; D010802:Phylogeny; D010937:Plant Growth Regulators / Q000494:pharmacology; D018517:Plant Roots / Q000166:cytology / Q000187:drug effects / Q000235:genetics / Q000254:growth & development; D018520:Plant Shoots / Q000166:cytology / Q000187:drug effects / Q000235:genetics / Q000254:growth & development; D030821:Plants, Genetically Modified / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism; D017434:Protein Structure, Tertiary; D015398:Signal Transduction
chemical_list: D029681:Arabidopsis Proteins; D010455:Peptides; D010937:Plant Growth Regulators
keywords: Arabidopsis; CEP expression; evolutionary analyses; phylogeny; shoot development.; small signalling peptides