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HEREDITAS(Beijing) ›› 2014, Vol. 36 ›› Issue (10): 1027-1035.doi: 10.3724/SP.J.1005.2014.1027

• Research Articles • Previous Articles     Next Articles

The molecular evolution of rice stress-related genes

Xiaojun Song1, 2, Kaibin Xie3, Yanping Zhang1, Ping Jin2   

  1. 1. Key Lab of Plant Biotechnology in Universities of Shandong Province, College of Life Science, Qingdao Agricultural University, Qingdao 266109, China;
    2. Laboratory for Comparative Genomics and Bioinformatics, College of Life Science, Nanjing Normal University, Nanjing 210023, China;
    3. College of Teacher Education, Nanjing Normal University, Nanjing 210023, China
  • Received:2014-03-05 Online:2014-10-20 Published:2014-10-20

Abstract: In the processes of evolution, plants have formed a perfect regulation system to tolerate adverse environmental conditions. However, there has not been any report about the molecular evolution of rice stress-related genes. We derived a family of 22 stress-related genes in rice from Plant Stress Gene Database, and analyzed it by bioinformatics and comparative genome method. The results showed that these genes are relatively conservative in low organisms, and their copy numbers increase along with the environmental changes and the evolution. We also found four conserved sequence motifs and three other specific motifs. We propose that these motifs are closely associated with the function of rice stress-related genes. The analysis of selection pressure showed that about 50% rice stress-related genes have positive selection sites, although they were subject to a strong purifying selection. Positive selection sites might be very significant for plants to adapt to environmental changes.

Key words: rice, stress-related genes, evolution, selective pressure