AI Article Synopsis
- MicroProteins (miPs) are truncated transcription factor-like proteins that influence the activity of transcription factors, increasing the complexity of gene regulation.
- Researchers identified over 400 potential miP genes in Arabidopsis through bioinformatics and validated two specific miPs related to flowering time and stress responses.
- The study highlights the evolutionary aspect of miPs, noting how domain loss contributes to their development and suggesting their significant role in regulating target transcription factors across different organisms.
Article Abstract
Truncated transcription factor-like proteins called microProteins (miPs) can modulate transcription factor activities, thereby increasing transcriptional regulatory complexity. To understand their prevalence, evolution, and function, we predicted over 400 genes that encode putative miPs from Arabidopsis (Arabidopsis thaliana) using a bioinformatics pipeline and validated two novel miPs involved in flowering time and response to abiotic and biotic stress. We provide an evolutionary perspective for a class of miPs targeting homeodomain transcription factors in plants and metazoans. We identify domain loss as one mechanism of miP evolution and suggest the possible roles of miPs on the evolution of their target transcription factors. Overall, we reveal a prominent layer of transcriptional regulation by miPs, show pervasiveness of such proteins both within and across genomes, and provide a framework for studying their function and evolution.
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Source |
|---|---|
| http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4012575 | PMC |
| http://dx.doi.org/10.1104/pp.114.235903 | DOI Listing |
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