Open AccessActinidia DRM1 - An Intrinsically Disordered Protein Whose mRNA Expression Is Inversely Correlated with Spring Budbreak in Kiwifruit
Author(s) -
Marion Wood,
Georgina M. Rae,
Rui Wu,
Eric F. Walton,
Bin Xue,
Roger P. Hellens,
Vladimir N. Uversky
Publication year - 2013
Publication title -
plos one
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.99
H-Index - 332
ISSN - 1932-6203
DOI - 10.1371/journal.pone.0057354
Subject(s) - actinidia , biology , actinidia chinensis , dormancy , arabidopsis , intrinsically disordered proteins , genetics , messenger rna , gene , microbiology and biotechnology , botany , biochemistry , germination , mutant
Intrinsically disordered proteins (IDPs) are a relatively recently defined class of proteins which, under native conditions, lack a unique tertiary structure whilst maintaining essential biological functions. Functional classification of IDPs have implicated such proteins as being involved in various physiological processes including transcription and translation regulation, signal transduction and protein modification. Actinidia DRM1 (Ade D O RM ANCY ASSOCIATED GENE 1 ), represents a robust dormancy marker whose mRNA transcript expression exhibits a strong inverse correlation with the onset of growth following periods of physiological dormancy. Bioinformatic analyses suggest that DRM1 is plant specific and highly conserved at both the nucleotide and protein levels. It is predicted to be an intrinsically disordered protein with two distinct highly conserved domains. Several Actinidia DRM1 homologues, which align into two distinct Actinidia -specific families, Type I and Type II, have been identified. No candidates for the Arabidopsis DRM1-Homologue (AtDRM2) an additional family member, has been identified in Actinidia.