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Phylogenetic and transcriptional analysis of an expanded bZIP transcription factor family in Phytophthora sojae

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Title Phylogenetic and transcriptional analysis of an expanded bZIP transcription factor family in Phytophthora sojae
Names Ye, Wenwu (creator)
Wang, Yang (creator)
Dong, Suomeng (creator)
Tyler, Brett M. (creator)
Wang, Yuanchao (creator)
Date Issued 2013-11-28 (iso8601)
Note This is the publisher’s final pdf. The published article is copyrighted by the author(s) and published by BioMed Central Ltd. The published article can be found at: http://www.biomedcentral.com/bmcgenomics.
Abstract BACKGROUND: Basic leucine zipper (bZIP) transcription factors are present exclusively in eukaryotes and constitute
one of the largest and most diverse transcription factor families. The proteins are responsible for central
developmental and physiological processes in plants, animals, and fungi, including the pathogenicity of fungal
plant pathogens. However, there is limited understanding of bZIPs in oomycetes, which are fungus-like organisms
in the kingdom Stramenopila. Oomycetes include many destructive plant pathogens, including the well-studied
species Phytophthora sojae, which causes soybean stem and root rot.
RESULTS: Candidate bZIPs encoded in the genomes of P. sojae and four other oomycetes, two diatoms, and two
fungal species were predicted using bioinformatic methods. Comparative analysis revealed expanded numbers of
bZIP candidates in oomycetes, especially the Phytophthora species, due to the expansion of several novel bZIP
classes whose highly conserved asparagines in basic DNA-binding regions were substituted by other residues such
as cysteine. The majority of these novel bZIP classes were mostly restricted to oomycetes. The large number of
novel bZIPs appears to be the result of widespread gene duplications during oomycete evolution. The majority of
P. sojae bZIP candidates, including both conventional and novel bZIP classes, were predicted to contain canonical
protein secondary structures. Detection of gene transcripts using digital gene expression profiling and qRT-PCR
suggested that most of the candidates were not pseudogenes. The major transcriptional shifts of bZIPs occurred
during the zoosporangia/zoospore/cyst and host infection stages. Several infection-associated bZIP genes were
identified that were positively regulated by H₂O₂ exposure.
CONCLUSIONS: The identification of large classes of bZIP proteins in oomycetes with novel bZIP motif variants,
that are conserved and developmentally regulated and thus presumably functional, extends our knowledge of
this important family of eukaryotic transcription factors. It also lays the foundation for detailed studies of the
roles of these proteins in development and infection in P. sojae and other oomycetes.
Genre Article
Access Condition http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/us/
Topic Phytophthora
Identifier Ye, W., Wang, Y., Dong, S., Tyler, B. M., & Wang, Y. (2013). Phylogenetic and transcriptional analysis of an expanded bZIP transcription factor family in Phytophthora sojae. BioMed Central Genomics, 14, 839. doi:10.1186/1471-2164-14-839

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