title: Genome-wide identification of Calcineurin B-Like (CBL) gene family of plants reveals novel conserved motifs and evolutionary aspects in calcium signaling events.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Calcium ions, the most versatile secondary messenger found in plants, are involved in the regulation of diverse arrays of plant growth and development, as well as biotic and abiotic stress responses. The calcineurin B-like proteins are one of the most important genes that act as calcium sensors.
  
  
  RESULTS
  In this study, we identified calcineurin B-like gene family members from 38 different plant species and assigned a unique nomenclature to each of them. Sequence analysis showed that, the CBL proteins contain three calcium binding EF-hand domain that contains several conserved Asp and Glu amino acid residues. The third EF-hand of the CBL protein was found to posses the D/E-x-D calcium binding sensor motif. Phylogenetic analysis showed that, the CBL genes fall into six different groups. Additionally, except group B CBLs, all the CBL proteins were found to contain N-terminal palmitoylation and myristoylation sites. An evolutionary study showed that, CBL genes are evolved from a common ancestor and subsequently diverged during the course of evolution of land plants. Tajima's neutrality test showed that, CBL genes are highly polymorphic and evolved via decreasing population size due to balanced selection. Differential expression analysis with cold and heat stress treatment led to differential modulation of OsCBL genes.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The basic architecture of plant CBL genes is conserved throughout the plant kingdom. Evolutionary analysis showed that, these genes are evolved from a common ancestor of lower eukaryotic plant lineage and led to broadening of the calcium signaling events in higher eukaryotic organisms.
authors.affiliation: School of Biotechnology, Yeungnam University Gyeongsan, Gyeongbook, 712-749, Republic of Korea. nostoc.tapan@gmail.com.
authors.forename: Tapan Kumar
authors.initials: TK
authors.lastname: Mohanta
authors.affiliation: Department of Biotechnology, North Orissa University, Sri Ramchandra Vihar, Takatpur, Baripada, Mayurbhanj, Orissa, 757003, India. nibu.biotech@gmail.com.
authors.forename: Nibedita
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Mohanta
authors.affiliation: Department of Botany, North Orissa University, Sri Ramchandra Vihar, Takatpur, Baripada, Mayurbhanj, Orissa, 757003, India. ykmohanta@gmail.com.
authors.forename: Yugal Kishore
authors.initials: YK
authors.lastname: Mohanta
authors.affiliation: Center for studies in Biotechnology, Dibrugarh University, Dibrugarh, 786004, Assam, India. pratapparida2007yahoo.com@gmail.com.
authors.forename: Pratap
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Parida
authors.affiliation: School of Biotechnology, Yeungnam University Gyeongsan, Gyeongbook, 712-749, Republic of Korea. hanhongbae@ynu.ac.kr.
authors.forename: Hanhong
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Bae
mesh_terms: D002135:Calcium-Binding Proteins / Q000737:chemistry / Q000235:genetics* / Q000378:metabolism; D019143:Evolution, Molecular; D010802:Phylogeny; D010940:Plant Proteins / Q000737:chemistry / Q000235:genetics* / Q000378:metabolism; D017434:Protein Structure, Tertiary; D020539:Sequence Analysis, Protein; D057948:Viridiplantae / Q000235:genetics* / Q000378:metabolism
chemical_list: D002135:Calcium-Binding Proteins; D010940:Plant Proteins