Tracking the evolution of a cold stress associated gene family in cold tolerant grasses.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Grasses are adapted to a wide range of climatic conditions. Species of the subfamily Pooideae, which includes wheat, barley and important forage grasses, have evolved extreme frost tolerance. A class of ice binding proteins that inhibit ice re-crystallisation, specific to the Pooideae subfamily lineage, have been identified in perennial ryegrass and wheat, and these proteins are thought to have evolved from a leucine-rich repeat phytosulfokine receptor kinase (LRR-PSR)-like ancestor gene. Even though the ice re-crystallisation inhibition function of these proteins has been studied extensively in vitro, little is known about the evolution of these genes on the molecular level.

Results

We identified 15 putative novel ice re-crystallisation inhibition (IRI)-like prot

SUBMITTER: Sandve SR 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC2542378 | biostudies-literature | 2008 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature