Journal
MOLECULAR BIOLOGY AND EVOLUTION
Volume 18, Issue 4, Pages 491-502Publisher
SOC MOLECULAR BIOLOGY EVOLUTION
DOI: 10.1093/oxfordjournals.molbev.a003828
Keywords
Physcomitrella; moss; homeobox; leucine zipper; molecular evolution; gene family
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Homeobox genes encode transcription factors involved in many aspects of developmental processes. The homeodomain-leucine zipper (HD-Zip) genes, which are characterized by the presence of both a homeodomain and a leucine zipper motif. form a clade within the homeobox superfamily and were previously reported only from vascular plants. Here we report the isolation of 10 HD-Zip genes (named Pphb1-Pphb10) from the moss Physcomitrella patens. Based on a phylogenetic analysis of the 10 Pphb genes and previously reported vascular plant HD-Zip genes, all of the Pphb genes except Pphb3 belong to three of the four HD-Zip subfamilies (HD-Zip I, II, and III), indicating that these subfamilies originated before the divergence of the vascular plant and moss lineages. Pphb3 is sister to the HD-Zip II subfamily and has some distinctive characteristics, including the difference of the a, and d(1) sites of its leucine zipper motif, which are well conserved in each HD-Zip subfamily. Comparison of the genetic divergence of representative HD-Zip I and II genes showed that the evolutionary rate of HD-Zip I genes was faster than that of HD-Zip II genes.
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