| 1. |
- Curci, Pasquale Luca, et al.
(författare)
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Identification of growth regulators using cross-species network analysis in plants
- 2022
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Ingår i: Plant Physiology. - : Oxford University Press. - 0032-0889 .- 1532-2548. ; 190:4, s. 2350-2365
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- With the need to increase plant productivity, one of the challenges plant scientists are facing is to identify genes that play a role in beneficial plant traits. Moreover, even when such genes are found, it is generally not trivial to transfer this knowledge about gene function across species to identify functional orthologs. Here, we focused on the leaf to study plant growth. First, we built leaf growth transcriptional networks in Arabidopsis (Arabidopsis thaliana), maize (Zea mays), and aspen (Populus tremula). Next, known growth regulators, here defined as genes that when mutated or ectopically expressed alter plant growth, together with cross-species conserved networks, were used as guides to predict novel Arabidopsis growth regulators. Using an in-depth literature screening, 34 out of 100 top predicted growth regulators were confirmed to affect leaf phenotype when mutated or overexpressed and thus represent novel potential growth regulators. Globally, these growth regulators were involved in cell cycle, plant defense responses, gibberellin, auxin, and brassinosteroid signaling. Phenotypic characterization of loss-of-function lines confirmed two predicted growth regulators to be involved in leaf growth (NPF6.4 and LATE MERISTEM IDENTITY2). In conclusion, the presented network approach offers an integrative cross-species strategy to identify genes involved in plant growth and development.
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| 2. |
- Forslund, Kristoffer, et al.
(författare)
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Gearing up to handle the mosaic nature of life in the quest for orthologs
- 2018
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Ingår i: Bioinformatics. - : Oxford University Press (OUP). - 1367-4803 .- 1367-4811. ; 34:2, s. 323-329
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The Quest for Orthologs (QfO) is an open collaboration framework for experts in comparative phylogenomics and related research areas who have an interest in highly accurate orthology predictions and their applications. We here report highlights and discussion points from the QfO meeting 2015 held in Barcelona. Achievements in recent years have established a basis to support developments for improved orthology prediction and to explore new approaches. Central to the QfO effort is proper benchmarking of methods and services, as well as design of standardized datasets and standardized formats to allow sharing and comparison of results. Simultaneously, analysis pipelines have been improved, evaluated and adapted to handle large datasets. All this would not have occurred without the long-term collaboration of Consortium members. Meeting regularly to review and coordinate complementary activities from a broad spectrum of innovative researchers clearly benefits the community. Highlights of the meeting include addressing sources of and legitimacy of disagreements between orthology calls, the context dependency of orthology definitions, special challenges encountered when analyzing very anciently rooted orthologies, orthology in the light of whole-genome duplications, and the concept of orthologous versus paralogous relationships at different levels, including domain-level orthology. Furthermore, particular needs for different applications (e.g. plant genomics, ancient gene families and others) and the infrastructure for making orthology inferences available (e.g. interfaces with model organism databases) were discussed, with several ongoing efforts that are expected to be reported on during the upcoming 2017 QfO meeting.
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| 3. |
- Lama, Sbatie, et al.
(författare)
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Neofunctionalization of Mitochondrial Proteins and Incorporation into Signaling Networks in Plants
- 2019
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Ingår i: Molecular biology and evolution. - : Oxford University Press (OUP). - 0737-4038 .- 1537-1719. ; 36:5, s. 974-989
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Because of their symbiotic origin, many mitochondrial proteins are well conserved across eukaryotic kingdoms. It is however less obvious how specific lineages have obtained novel nuclear-encoded mitochondrial proteins. Here, we report a case of mitochondrial neofunctionalization in plants. Phylogenetic analysis of genes containing the Domain of Unknown Function 295 (DUF295) revealed that the domain likely originated in Angiosperms. The C-terminal DUF295 domain is usually accompanied by an N-terminal F-box domain, involved in ubiquitin ligation via binding with ASK1/SKP1-type proteins. Due to gene duplication, the gene family has expanded rapidly, with 94 DUF295-related genes in Arabidopsis thaliana alone. Two DUF295 family subgroups have uniquely evolved and quickly expanded within Brassicaceae. One of these subgroups has completely lost the F-box, but instead obtained strongly predicted mitochondrial targeting peptides. We show that several representatives of this DUF295 Organellar group are effectively targeted to plant mitochondria and chloroplasts. Furthermore, many DUF295 Organellar genes are induced by mitochondrial dysfunction, whereas F-Box DUF295 genes are not. In agreement, several Brassicaceae-specific DUF295 Organellar genes were incorporated in the evolutionary much older ANAC017-dependent mitochondrial retrograde signaling pathway. Finally, a representative set of DUF295 T-DNA insertion mutants was created. No obvious aberrant phenotypes during normal growth and mitochondrial dysfunction were observed, most likely due to the large extent of gene duplication and redundancy. Overall, this study provides insight into how novel mitochondrial proteins can be created via "intercompartmental" gene duplication events. Moreover, our analysis shows that these newly evolved genes can then be specifically integrated into relevant, pre-existing coexpression networks.
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| 4. |
- Lang, Daniel, et al.
(författare)
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The Physcomitrella patens chromosome-scale assembly reveals moss genome structure and evolution
- 2018
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Ingår i: The Plant Journal. - : Wiley. - 0960-7412 .- 1365-313X. ; 93:3, s. 515-533
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The draft genome of the moss model, Physcomitrella patens, comprised approximately 2000 unordered scaffolds. In order to enable analyses of genome structure and evolution we generated a chromosome-scale genome assembly using genetic linkage as well as (end) sequencing of long DNA fragments. We find that 57% of the genome comprises transposable elements (TEs), some of which may be actively transposing during the life cycle. Unlike in flowering plant genomes, gene-and TE-rich regions show an overall even distribution along the chromosomes. However, the chromosomes are mono-centric with peaks of a class of Copia elements potentially coinciding with centromeres. Gene body methylation is evident in 5.7% of the protein-coding genes, typically coinciding with low GC and low expression. Some giant virus insertions are transcriptionally active and might protect gametes from viral infection via siRNA mediated silencing. Structure-based detection methods show that the genome evolved via two rounds of whole genome duplications (WGDs), apparently common in mosses but not in liverworts and hornworts. Several hundred genes are present in colinear regions conserved since the last common ancestor of plants. These syntenic regions are enriched for functions related to plant-specific cell growth and tissue organization. The P. patens genome lacks the TE-rich pericentromeric and gene-rich distal regions typical for most flowering plant genomes. More non-seed plant genomes are needed to unravel how plant genomes evolve, and to understand whether the P. patens genome structure is typical for mosses or bryophytes.
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| 5. |
- Sundell, David, 1984-
(författare)
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Novel resources enabling comparative regulomics in forest tree species
- 2017
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Lignocellulosic plants are the most abundant source of terrestrial biomass and are one of the potential sources of renewable energy that can replace the use of fossil fuels. For a country such as Sweden, where the forest industry accounts for 10% of the total export, there would be large economical benefits associated with increased biomass yield. The availability of research on wood development conducted in conifer tree species, which represent the majority of the forestry in Sweden, is limited and the majority of research has been conducted in model angiosperm species such as Arabidopsis thaliana. However, the large evolutionary distance between angiosperms and gymnosperms limits the possibility to identify orthologous genes and regulatory pathways by comparing sequence similarity alone. At such large evolutionary distances, the identification of gene similarity is, in most cases, not sufficient and additional information is required for functional annotation. In this thesis, two high-spatial resolution datasets profiling wood development were processed; one from the angiosperm tree Populus tremula and the other from the conifer species Picea abies. These datasets were each published together with a web resource including tools for the exploration of gene expression, co-expression and functional enrichment of gene sets. One developed resource allows interactive, comparative co-expression analysis between species to identify conserved and diverged co-expression modules. These tools make it possible to identifying conserved regulatory modules that can focus downstream research and provide biologists with a resource to identify regulatory genes for targeted trait improvement.
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