Genetic variability and evolutionary diversification of membrane ABC transporters in plants (original) (raw)
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Background: The ATP-binding cassette (ABC) transporter gene superfamily is ubiquitous among extant organisms and prominently represented in plants. ABC transporters act to transport compounds across cellular membranes and are involved in a diverse range of biological processes. Thus, the applicability to biotechnology is vast, including cancer resistance in humans, drug resistance among vertebrates, and herbicide and other xenobiotic resistance in plants. In addition, plants appear to harbor the highest diversity of ABC transporter genes compared with any other group of organisms. This study applied transcriptome analysis to survey the kingdom-wide ABC transporter diversity in plants and suggest biotechnology applications of this diversity.
PERSPECTIVES Hiring cell gatekeepers – ABC transporters in plant biotechnology
BioTechnologia, 2011
In order to survive in the environment, a cell has to be able to maintain a constant influx of chemical substances which provide nourishment, it also has to dispose of endogenous or exogenous toxins as well as must perceive and exchange signalling molecules. Such movement needs to be selective and organised. This prerequisite is realised by an array of membrane transporters, channels, carriers and pumps. ATP-binding cassette (ABC) transporters constitute the largest family of membrane transport proteins found in all organisms in every life domain. Researches in recent years have shown recognition of the role that plant ABC transporters play in hormone signalling, heavy metal tolerance, as well as natural product trafficking. In this review article we present plant ABC transporters, their characteristic modular structure and importance in plant physiology. We also point out the recent discoveries that describe their role in drought tolerance by modulation of abscisic acid traffic, and their involvement in subcellular compartmentation of exogenous toxic compounds and/or natural products. Alongside the gradually increasing number of results in fundamental research, plant ABC transporters begin to emerge as novel targets for applied science. We present an outline of the work and ideas that may link genetic engineering of ABC transporters with plant biotechnology. A particular attention is paid to the possibility of alleviating the heavy metal stress and the production of secondary metabolites.
Febs Letters, 2006
The large number of ABC transporters in the Arabidopsis genome was made responsible for known as well as unexpected aspects in plant development. The combination of classical transport experiments with functional genomics approaches helped unravel some of these effects. Yet questions concerning the importance of this large number of ABC transporters in eukaryotic photosynthesizing organisms remain open. Phylogenomic analyses of whole genome sequence data reveal comparable sizes and composition between algae and higher plants within this protein family. Although this indicates the significance of ABC transporters in plants, several other questions remain to be answered.
Biochemical Society transactions, 2015
The ABC (ATP-binding cassette) transporter family in higher plants is highly expanded compared with those of mammalians. Moreover, some members of the plant ABC subfamily B (ABCB) display very high substrate specificity compared with their mammalian counterparts that are often associated with multi-drug resistance phenomena. In this review, we highlight prominent functions of plant and mammalian ABC transporters and summarize our knowledge on their post-transcriptional regulation with a focus on protein phosphorylation. A deeper comparison of regulatory events of human cystic fibrosis transmembrane conductance regulator (CFTR) and ABCB1 from the model plant Arabidopsis reveals a surprisingly high degree of similarity. Both physically interact with orthologues of the FK506-binding proteins that chaperon both transporters to the plasma membrane in an action that seems to involve heat shock protein (Hsp)90. Further, both transporters are phosphorylated at regulatory domains that connec...
Multifunctionality of plant ABC transporters - more than just detoxifiers
Planta, 2002
The ABC-transporter superfamily is one of the largest protein families, and members can be found in bacteria, fungi, plants and animals. The first reports on plant ABC transporters showed that they are implicated in detoxification processes. The recent completion of the genomic sequencing of Arabidopsis thaliana (L.) Heynh. [Arabidopsis Genome Initiative (2000) Nature 408:796–815] showed that Arabidopsis contains more than 100 ABC-type proteins; 53 genes code for so-called full-size transporters, which are large proteins of about 150 kDa consisting of two hydrophobic and two hydrophilic domains. The large number of genes in the MDR/MRP and PDR5-like sub-clusters and the strong sequence homology found in many cases suggest functional redundancy. One reason for the high number of genes can be attributed to the duplication of large segments of Arabidopsis chromosomes. Recent results indicate that the function of this protein family is not restricted to detoxification processes. Plant ABC transporters have been demonstrated to participate in chlorophyll biosynthesis, formation of Fe/S clusters, stomatal movement, and probably ion fluxes; hence they may play a central role in plant growth and developmental processes.