Evolution of the cyclin gene family in plants

Cyclins are key regulators of cell cycle progression. Previous studies have shown that cyclin genes in plants can be divided into 10 groups. However, because those studies only focused on genes from two well-known model plants (i.e., Arabidopsis thaliana (L.) Heynh. and Oryza sativa L.), it remains unclear whether the 10 groups are reasonably defined. In this study, by analyzing the genomes of 10 representative plants (Chlamydomonas reinhardtii P. A. Dang, Physcomitrella patens (Hedw.) Bruch & Schimp., Selaginella moellendorffii Hieron., Picea abies (L.) H. Karst., Amborella trichopoda Baill., A. thaliana, Populus trichocarpa Torr. & A. Gray ex Hook., Vitis vinifera L., O. sativa, and Sorghum bicolor (L.) Moench), we estimated the phylogenetic relationships of plant cyclins and investigated their evolutionary patterns. We confirmed that plant cyclins can be classified into 10 groups, although only eight ancestral genes may have existed in the most recent common ancestor of extant green plants. We also found that, due to the frequent occurrences of gene duplication events, several groups have expanded extensively in seed plants and, particularly, flowering plants, so that multiple genes belonging to different subgroups are present in a species. Reconciliation of the evolutionary histories of these groups and subgroups further led to the identification of evolutionarily highly conserved and rapidly duplicating gene lineages. These results will guide the classification and nomenclature of plant cyclins and help understand the conservativeness and variation in their functions.