Abundantly and rarely expressed Lhc protein genes exhibit distinct regulation patterns in plants

We have analyzed gene regulation of the Lhc supergene family in poplar (Populus spp.) and Arabidopsis (Arabidopsis thaliana) using digital expression profiling. Multivariate analysis of the tissue-specific, environmental, and developmental Lhc expression patterns in Arabidopsis and poplar was employed to characterize four rarely expressed Lhc genes, Lhca5, Lhca6, Lhcb7, and Lhcb4.3. Those genes have high expression levels under different conditions and in different tissues than the abundantly expressed Lhca1 to 4 and Lhcb1 to 6 genes that code for the 10 major types of higher plant light-harvesting proteins. However, in some of the datasets analyzed, the Lhcb4 and Lhcb6 genes as well as an Arabidopsis gene not present in poplar (Lhcb2.3) exhibited minor differences to the main cooperative Lhc gene expression pattern. The pattern of the rarely expressed Lhc genes was always found to be more similar to that of PsbS and the various light-harvesting-like genes, which might indicate distinct physiological functions for the rarely and abundantly expressed Lhc proteins. The previously undetected Lhcb7 gene encodes a novel plant Lhcb-type protein that possibly contains an additional, fourth, transmembrane N-terminal helix with a highly conserved motif. As the Lhcb4.3 gene seems to be present only in Eurosid species and as its regulation pattern varies significantly from that of Lhcb4.1 and Lhcb4.2, we conclude it to encode a distinct Lhc protein type, Lhcb8.     

Role of exonucleolytic degradation in group I intron homing in phage T4

The Schizosaccharomyces pombe checkpoint gene named rad3(+) encodes an ATM-homologous protein kinase that shares a highly conserved motif with proteins involved in DNA metabolism. Previous studies have shown that Rad3 fulfills its function via the regulation of the Chk1 and Cds1 protein kinases. Here we describe a novel role for Rad3 in the control of telomere integrity. Mutations in the rad3(+) gene alleviated telomeric silencing and produced shortened lengths in the telomere repeat tracts. Genetic analysis revealed that the other checkpoint rad mutations rad1, rad17, and rad26 belong to the same phenotypic class with rad3 with regard to control of the telomere length. Of these mutations, rad3 and rad26 have a drastic effect on telomere shortening. tel1(+), another ATM homologue in S. pombe, carries out its telomere maintenance function in parallel with the checkpoint rad genes. Furthermore, either a single or double disruption of cds1(+) and chk1(+) caused no obvious changes in the telomeric DNA structure. Our results demonstrate a novel role of the S. pombe ATM homologues that is independent of chk1(+) and cds1(+).     

水稻AT-hook基因家族生物信息学分析

AT-hook是一种小型的DNA结合蛋白基序, 在哺乳动物非组蛋白染色体的高移动组蛋白(HMG-I/Y)中首次发现。对其它生物的研究表明, AT-hook蛋白在染色质结构组装、靶细胞特异性结合、转录调控和生长发育的调控中发挥重要作用。利用生物信息学方法, 从水稻(Oryza sativa)基因组中鉴定出了45个编码AT-hook蛋白的基因, 并对这些基因的系统进化、染色体定位及其编码蛋白的结构和功能等进行了系统的生物信息学分析。结果表明, 水稻AT-hook蛋白的结构和特性分化不显著; 45个水稻AT-hook基因可划分成5个亚族; 染色体复制是基因家族成员扩增的进化途径之一。基因数字表达分析结果显示, AT-hook基因主要在水稻幼穗中表达, 并通过qRT-PCR验证了部分基因的数字表达结果。