The role of expansion and functional divergence of gene family in the evolution of environmental stress responses in land plants

2015 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 26891008
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Research Activity Start-up
• Allocation Type: Single-year Grants
• Research Field: Evolutionary biology
• Research Institution: Ochanomizu University
• Principal Investigator: YASUMURA YUKI お茶の水女子大学, 生命情報学教育研究センター, 助教 (20733893)
• Project Period (FY): 2014-08-29 – 2016-03-31
• Keywords: 植物 / 進化 / 植物ホルモン / シグナル伝達 / 環境ストレス応答

Outline of Final Research Achievements

Plant stress responses are regulated by complex mechanisms in order for the appropriate responses to be induced as the environment changes. Such complicated regulatory mechanisms are sometimes brought about by duplicated genes that have acquired different function through evolution. Here we focus on two similar genes, which appeared to be involved in the ABA and ethylene signaling pathways, to find out whether they have functionally diverged after the duplication event. The results obtained through physiological and molecular studies both suggested that the two genes exerted different effects, despite the fact that they function within the same regulatory system, indicating a clear sign of functional divergence. This study provided a new insight into how plant stress responses may have diversified during the course of land plant evolution.

Free Research Field

植物分子生物学