Prevalent Exon-Intron Structural Changes in the APETALA1/FRUITFULL, SEPALLATA, AGAMOUS-LIKE6, and FLOWERING LOCUS C MADS-Box Gene Subfamilies Provide New Insights into Their Evolution.

ABSTRACT: AP1/FUL, SEP, AGL6, and FLC subfamily genes play important roles in flower development. The phylogenetic relationships among them, however, have been controversial, which impedes our understanding of the origin and functional divergence of these genes. One possible reason for the controversy may be the problems caused by changes in the exon-intron structure of genes, which, according to recent studies, may generate non-homologous sites and hamper the homology-based sequence alignment. In this study, we first performed exon-by-exon alignments of these and three outgroup subfamilies (SOC1, AG, and STK). Phylogenetic trees reconstructed based on these matrices show improved resolution and better congruence with species phylogeny. In the context of these phylogenies, we traced evolutionary cha

SUBMITTER: Yu X 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4852290 | biostudies-literature | 2016

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature