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Abstract Detail


Evolutionary Developmental Biology (Evo-Devo)

Mccarthy, Elizabeth [1], Pabon Mora, Natalia [2], Mohamed, Abeer [1], Litt, Amy [1].

The consequences of gene duplication: Functional divergence of APETALA1 and FRUITFULL in Arabidopsis thaliana.

Ancient genome duplications led to the diversification of certain gene families via maintenance of gene duplicates over time. One such family is the MADS-box genes, which are transcription factors involved in floral development. Within this family, a duplication at the base of the core eudicots in the APETALA1 lineage resulted in euAP1and euFUL genes, which now play different roles in development. In Arabidopsis, both the APETALA1 (AP1) and FRUITFULL (FUL) genes promote floral meristem identity, whereas AP1 is involved in sepal and petal identity and FUL plays a role in fruit development. AP1 and FUL are expressed in mutually exclusive domains during floral development and also possess unique motifs within their proteins. Pre-duplication FUL-like genes from species within the Papaveraceae, Papaver somniferum (opium poppy) and Eschschlolzia californica (California poppy), display all functions described for euAP1 and euFUL genes within the core eudicots, suggesting that the functional divergence between euAP1and euFUL genes is due to subfunctionalization of original gene function. Here, we examine the mechanism behind the functional divergence of AP1 and FUL in Arabidopsis thaliana, using promoter swap experiments to determine whether divergence in function between these two genes is due to differences in regulation or unique changes in coding sequence or both. Our results highlight the importance of functional characterization of ancient gene duplicates in order to fully understand the maintenance of gene duplicates, whether divergence in regulation or coding sequence drives divergence in function, and the implication that this functional divergence has on the evolution of flowering plants.

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1 - The New York Botanical Garden, Plant Genomics, 2900 Southern Blvd., Bronx, NY, 10458, USA
2 - The New York Botanical Garden, 2900 Southern Boulevard, The New York Botanical Garden, Bronx, NY, 10458, USA

Keywords:
floral development
functional divergence
Gene duplication.

Presentation Type: Oral Paper:Papers for Topics
Session: 22
Location: Delaware C/Hyatt
Date: Tuesday, July 10th, 2012
Time: 10:45 AM
Number: 22011
Abstract ID:655


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