Cloning and characterization of rac-like cDNAs from Arabidopsis thaliana

The Rho family of GTPases are in higher eukaryotes divided into 3 major subfamilies; the Rho, Rac and Cdc42 proteins. In plants, however, the Rho family is restricted to one large family of Rac-like proteins. From work with mammalian phagocytes the Rac proteins are known to activate a multicomponent...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Plant molecular biology 1997-11, Vol.35 (4), p.483-495
Main Authors: Winge, P, Brembu, T, Bones, A.M
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Amino Acid Sequence
amino acid sequences
Arabidopsis - genetics
Arabidopsis - growth & development
Arabidopsis thaliana
Base Sequence
binding proteins
Cloning, Molecular
complementary DNA
DNA, Complementary - genetics
DNA, Plant - genetics
G-proteins
genbank/u41295
genbank/u43026
genbank/u43501
genbank/u45236
genbank/u52350
gene expression
Gene Expression Regulation, Plant - physiology
Genes
Genes, Plant - genetics
Genetic Variation - genetics
GTP-Binding Proteins - genetics
guanosine triphosphate
inflorescences
introns
leaves
messenger RNA
Molecular Sequence Data
multigene family
Multigene Family - genetics
nucleotide sequences
Phylogeny
plant development
plant proteins
Plant Proteins - genetics
Proteins
rac genes
rac GTP-Binding Proteins
RNA, Messenger - analysis
RNA, Plant - analysis
roots
Sequence Analysis, DNA
Sequence Homology, Amino Acid
Sequence Homology, Nucleic Acid
stems
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Summary:The Rho family of GTPases are in higher eukaryotes divided into 3 major subfamilies; the Rho, Rac and Cdc42 proteins. In plants, however, the Rho family is restricted to one large family of Rac-like proteins. From work with mammalian phagocytes the Rac proteins are known to activate a multicomponent NADPH-dependent oxidase which results in accumulation of H2O2, a process termed oxidative burst. In plants a similar oxidative burst is observed and plays an important role in its defence against pathogen infections, suggesting a similar role for the plant Rac-like proteins. The Rho family of GTPases proteins are also involved in control of cell morphology, and are also thought to mediate signals from cell membrane receptors. In a broad search for members of the Ras superfamily in plants, several new small GTP-binding proteins were found. We report here the identification and molecular cloning of 5 rac-like cDNAs from Arabidopsis thaliana, Arac1-5. The Rac-like proteins deduced from the cDNA sequences all share 80-95% homology, but show considerably more diversity on the nucleotide level, indicating that this is an ancient gene family. Four of the rac genes were found to be expressed in all tissues examined, but one gene, Arac2, was expressed exclusively in the root, hypocotyl and stem. Our results show that the rac gene family in A. thaliana consists of at least 10 different genes.
ISSN:0167-4412
1573-5028
DOI:10.1023/A:1005804508902