Reyes José C, Muro-Pastor M Isabel, Florencio Francisco J
Instituto de Bioquímica Vegetal y Fotosíntesis, Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas, Universidad de Seville, Américo Vespucio s/n, E-41092 Seville, Spain.
Plant Physiol. 2004 Apr;134(4):1718-32. doi: 10.1104/pp.103.037788.
GATA transcription factors are a group of DNA binding proteins broadly distributed in eukaryotes. The GATA factors DNA binding domain is a class IV zinc finger motif in the form CX(2)CX(17-20)CX(2)C followed by a basic region. In plants, GATA DNA motifs have been implicated in light-dependent and nitrate-dependent control of transcription. Herein, we show that the Arabidopsis and the rice (Oryza sativa) genomes present 29 and 28 loci, respectively, that encode for putative GATA factors. A phylogenetic analysis of the 57 GATA factors encoding genes, as well as the study of their intron-exon structure, indicates the existence of seven subfamilies of GATA genes. Some of these subfamilies are represented in both species but others are exclusive for one of them. In addition to the GATA zinc finger motif, polypeptides of the different subfamilies are characterized by the presence of additional domains such as an acidic domain, a CCT (CONSTANS, CO-like, and TOC1) domain, or a transposase-like domain also found in FAR1 and FHY3. Subfamily VI comprises genes that encode putative bi-zinc finger polypeptides, also found in metazoan and fungi, and a tri-zinc finger protein which has not been previously reported in eukaryotes. The phylogeny of the GATA zinc finger motif, excluding flanking regions, evidenced the existence of four classes of GATA zinc fingers, three of them containing 18 residues in the zinc finger loop and one containing a 20-residue loop. Our results support multiple models of evolution of the GATA gene family in plants including gene duplication and exon shuffling.
GATA转录因子是一类广泛分布于真核生物中的DNA结合蛋白。GATA因子的DNA结合结构域是一种IV类锌指基序，形式为CX(2)CX(17 - 20)CX(2)C，后面跟着一个碱性区域。在植物中，GATA DNA基序与转录的光依赖性和硝酸盐依赖性调控有关。在此，我们表明拟南芥和水稻基因组分别有29个和28个位点，编码假定的GATA因子。对57个编码GATA因子的基因进行系统发育分析，以及对它们内含子 - 外显子结构的研究，表明存在7个GATA基因亚家族。其中一些亚家族在两个物种中都有代表，但其他一些亚家族只存在于其中一个物种中。除了GATA锌指基序外，不同亚家族的多肽还具有其他结构域的特征，如酸性结构域、CCT（CONSTANS、CO样和TOC1）结构域，或在FAR1和FHY3中也发现的转座酶样结构域。亚家族VI包含编码假定的双锌指多肽的基因，这种多肽也存在于后生动物和真菌中，以及一种三锌指蛋白，该蛋白以前在真核生物中未被报道。排除侧翼区域后，GATA锌指基序的系统发育表明存在四类GATA锌指，其中三类在锌指环中含有18个残基，一类含有20个残基的环。我们的结果支持植物中GATA基因家族进化的多种模型，包括基因复制和外显子重排。
