Diversification of histone H2A variants during plant evolution

Tomokazu Kawashima, Zdravko J. Lorković, Ryuichi Nishihama, Kimitsune Ishizaki, Elin Axelsson, Ramesh Yelagandula, Takayuki Kohchi, Frederic Berger

Research output: Contribution to journalReview articlepeer-review

70 Scopus citations

Abstract

Among eukaryotes, the four core histones show an extremely high conservation of their structure and form nucleosomes that compact, protect, and regulate access to genetic information. Nevertheless, in multicellular eukaryotes the two families, histone H2A and histone H3, have diversified significantly in key residues. We present a phylogenetic analysis across the green plant lineage that reveals an early diversification of the H2A family in unicellular green algae and remarkable expansions of H2A variants in flowering plants. We define motifs and domains that differentiate plant H2A proteins into distinct variant classes. In non-flowering land plants, we identify a new class of H2A variants and propose their possible role in the emergence of the H2A.W variant class in flowering plants.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)419-425
Number of pages7
JournalTrends in Plant Science
Volume20
Issue number7
DOIs
StatePublished - Jul 1 2015

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
© 2015 Elsevier Ltd.

Funding

We are grateful to Paul Talbert for critical comments on the manuscript and members of the Berger lab for discussion of the data. We thank the Joint Genome Institute for providing the genomic assemblies and transcriptomes of the ongoing M. polymorpha genome project. This work was supported by Österreichische Akademie der Wissenschaften (ÖAW) and by a grant from the Österreichischer Fonds zur Forderung der wissenschaftlichen Forschung (FWF) (grant number P26887) to F.B.

FundersFunder number
Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften
Austrian Science FundP26887
Österreichischer Fonds zur Forderung der wissenschaftlichen Forschung

    Keywords

    • Chromatin
    • Evolution
    • Histone H2A

    ASJC Scopus subject areas

    • Plant Science

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