Molecular evolution and species-specific expansion of the NAP members in plants.
The NAP (NAC-Like, Activated by AP3 /PI) subfamily is one of the important plant-specific transcription factors, and controls many vital biological processes in plants. In the current study, 197 NAP proteins were identified from 31 vascular plants, but no NAP members were found in eight non-vascular plants. All NAP proteins were phylogenetically classified into two groups (NAP I and NAP II), and the origin time of the NAP I group might be relatively later than that of the NAP II group. Furthermore, species-specific gene duplications, caused by segmental duplication events, resulted in the expansion of the NAP subfamily after species-divergence. Different groups have different expansion rates, and the NAP group preference was found during the expansion in plants. Moreover, the expansion of NAP proteins may be related to the gain and loss of introns. Besides, functional divergence was limited after the gene duplication. Abscisic acid (ABA) might play an important role in leaf senescence, which is regulated by NAP subfamily. These results could lay an important foundation for expansion and evolutionary analysis of NAP subfamily in plants.
Institute of Crop Science, College of Agriculture and Biotechnology, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, 310058, China.
Kai
K
Fan
Institute of Crop Science, College of Agriculture and Biotechnology, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, 310058, China.
Hao
H
Shen
Institute of Crop Science, College of Agriculture and Biotechnology, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, 310058, China.
Noreen
N
Bibi
Institute of Crop Science, College of Agriculture and Biotechnology, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, 310058, China.
Feng
F
Li
Institute of Crop Science, College of Agriculture and Biotechnology, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, 310058, China.
Shuna
S
Yuan
Institute of Crop Science, College of Agriculture and Biotechnology, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, 310058, China.
Ming
M
Wang
Institute of Crop Science, College of Agriculture and Biotechnology, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, 310058, China.
Xuede
X
Wang
D020816:Amino Acid Motifs; D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D032461:Chromosomes, Plant / Q000235:genetics; D016000:Cluster Analysis; D017124:Conserved Sequence; D019143:Evolution, Molecular; D020440:Gene Duplication; D018506:Gene Expression Regulation, Plant; D018745:Genome, Plant; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D010802:Phylogeny; D010940:Plant Proteins / Q000737:chemistry / Q000235:genetics*; D010944:Plants / Q000235:genetics*; D017434:Protein Structure, Tertiary; D012045:Regulatory Sequences, Nucleic Acid / Q000235:genetics; D013045:Species Specificity
D010940:Plant Proteins
Molecular evolution; NAP subfamily; plant kingdom; species-specific expansion