Journal Article

Species-Specific Expansion and Molecular Evolution of the 3-hydroxy-3-methylglutaryl Coenzyme A Reductase (HMGR) Gene Family in Plants

Liu, Wei, Li, Wei, Zhang, Baohong, Chen, Jinhong, Wei, Hengling, Zhu, Shuijin, He, Qiuling

2014

Overview

The terpene compounds represent the largest and most diverse class of plant secondary metabolites which are important in plant growth and development. The 3-hydroxy-3-methylglutaryl coenzyme A reductase (HMGR; EC 1.1.1.34) is one of the key enzymes contributed to terpene biosynthesis. To better understand the basic characteristics and evolutionary history of the HMGR gene family in plants, a genome-wide analysis of HMGR genes from 20 representative species was carried out. A total of 56 HMGR genes in the 14 land plant genomes were identified, but no genes were found in all 6 algal genomes. The gene structure and protein architecture of all plant HMGR genes were highly conserved. The phylogenetic analysis revealed that the plant HMGRs were derived from one ancestor gene and finally developed into four distinct groups, two in the monocot plants and two in dicot plants. Species-specific gene duplications, caused mainly by segmental duplication, led to the limited expansion of HMGR genes in Zea mays, Gossypium raimondii, Populus trichocarpa and Glycine max after the species diverged. The analysis of Ka/Ks ratios and expression profiles indicated that functional divergence after the gene duplications was restricted. The results suggested that the function and evolution of HMGR gene family were dramatically conserved throughout the plant kingdom.

• Publisher: Public Library of Science,Public Library of Science (PLoS)
• Subject: Agronomy / Algae / Amino Acid Motifs / Amino Acid Sequence / Analysis / Arabidopsis / Arabidopsis thaliana / Biological evolution / Biology and Life Sciences / Biosynthesis / Chromosome Mapping / Chromosomes / Coenzyme A / Divergence / Enzymes / Evolution / Evolution, Molecular / Evolutionary biology / Flowers & plants / Gene Duplication / Gene expression / Gene Expression Profiling / Gene Expression Regulation, Plant / Genes / Genes, Plant / Genome, Plant / Genomes / Glycine / Glycine max / Glycine max - genetics / Gossypium / Gossypium - genetics / Hydroxymethylglutaryl-CoA reductase / Hydroxymethylglutaryl-CoA-Reductases, NADP-dependent - genetics / Metabolites / Molecular evolution / Molecular Sequence Data / Multigene Family / Phylogenetics / Phylogeny / Physiological aspects / Plant genetics / Plant growth / Plant metabolites / Plants (botany) / Plants - genetics / Populus - genetics / Populus trichocarpa / Protein structure / Proteins / Reproduction (copying) / Secondary metabolites / Sequence Homology, Amino Acid / Species / Species Specificity / Thiols / Zea mays / Zea mays - genetics