Open AccessThe CEP family in land plants: evolutionary analyses, expression studies, and role in Arabidopsis shoot development
Author(s) -
Ianto Roberts,
Stephanie Smith,
Bert De Rybel,
Jana Van Den Broeke,
Wouter Smet,
Sarah De Cokere,
Marieke Mispelaere,
Ive De Smet,
Tom Beeckman
Publication year - 2013
Publication title -
journal of experimental botany
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.616
H-Index - 242
eISSN - 1460-2431
pISSN - 0022-0957
DOI - 10.1093/jxb/ert331
Subject(s) - arabidopsis , biology , gene family , extant taxon , signalling , genetics , architecture domain , microbiology and biotechnology , gene , gene expression , botany , computational biology , evolutionary biology , mutant , art , enterprise architecture management , enterprise architecture , architecture , visual arts
In Arabidopsis, more than 1000 putative small signalling peptides have been predicted, but very few have been functionally characterized. One class of small post-translationally modified signalling peptides is the C-TERMINALLY ENCODED PEPTIDE (CEP) family, of which one member has been shown to be involved in regulating root architecture. This work applied a bioinformatics approach to identify more members of the CEP family. It identified 10 additional members and revealed that this family only emerged in flowering plants and was absent from extant members of more primitive plants. The data suggest that the CEP proteins form two subgroups according to the CEP domain. This study further provides an overview of specific CEP expression patterns that offers a comprehensive framework to study the role of the CEP signalling peptides in plant development. For example, expression patterns point to a role in aboveground tissues which was corroborated by the analysis of transgenic lines with perturbed CEP levels. These results form the basis for further exploration of the mechanisms underlying this family of peptides and suggest their putative roles in distinct developmental events of higher plants.