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The evolution and diversification of plant microtubule‐associated proteins
Author(s) -
Gardiner John
Publication year - 2013
Publication title -
the plant journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 3.058
H-Index - 269
eISSN - 1365-313X
pISSN - 0960-7412
DOI - 10.1111/tpj.12189
Subject(s) - multicellular organism , biology , microtubule , plant evolution , genome , cytoskeleton , physcomitrella patens , evolutionary biology , gene , botany , genetics , cell , mutant
Summary Plant evolution is marked by major advances in structural characteristics that facilitated the highly successful colonization of dry land. Underlying these advances is the evolution of genes encoding specialized proteins that form novel microtubular arrays of the cytoskeleton. This review investigates the evolution of plant families of microtubule‐associated proteins ( MAP s) through the recently sequenced genomes of A rabidopsis thaliana , O ryza sativa , S elaginella moellendorffii , P hyscomitrella patens , V olvox carteri and C hlamydomonas reinhardtii . The families of MAP s examined are AIR 9, CLASP , CRIPT , MAP 18, MOR 1, TON , EB 1, At MAP 70, SPR 2, SPR 1, WVD 2 and MAP 65 families (abbreviations are defined in the footnote to Table 1). Conjectures are made regarding the evolution of MAP s in plants in relation to the evolution of multicellularity, oriented cell division and vasculature. Angiosperms in particular have high numbers of proteins that are involved in promotion of helical growth or its suppression, and novel plant microtubular structures may have acted as a catalyst for the development of novel plant MAP s. Comparisons of plant MAP gene families with those of animals show that animals may have more flexibility in the structure of their microtubule cytoskeletons than plants, but with both plants and animals possessing many MAP splice variants.