BAHD superfamily of acyl-CoA dependent acyltransferases in Populus and Arabidopsis: bioinformatics and gene expression

Plant acyl-CoA dependent acyltransferases constitute a large specific protein superfamily, named BAHD. Using the conserved sequence motifs of BAHD members, we searched the genome sequences of Populus and Arabidopsis, and identified, respectively, 94- and 61-putative genes. Subsequently, we analyzed the phylogeny, gene structure, and chromosomal distribution of BAHD members of both species; then, we profiled expression patterns of BAHD genes by in silico northern- and microarray-analyses based on public databases, and by RT-PCR. While our genomic- and bioinformatic- analyses provided full sets of BAHD superfamily genes, and cleaned up a few existing annotation errors, importantly it led to our recognizing several unique Arabidopsis BAHD genes that inversely overlapped with their neighboring genes on the genome, and disclosing a potential natural anti-sense regulation for gene expressions. Systemic gene-expression profiling of BAHD members revealed distinct tissue-specific/preferential expression patterns, indicating their diverse biological functions. Our study affords a strong knowledge base for understanding BAHD members' evolutionary relationships and gene functions implicated in plant growth, development and metabolism.