HOME HELP FEEDBACK SUBSCRIPTIONS ARCHIVE SEARCH TABLE OF CONTENTS		QUICK SEARCH:   [advanced] Author: Keyword(s): Year:  Vol:  Page:

J. Biol. Chem., Vol. 281, Issue 27, 18793-18801, July 7, 2006

This Article Full Text Full Text (PDF) Supplemental Data All Versions of this Article: 281/27/18793    most recent M511794200v1 Submit a Letter to Editor Alert me when this article is cited Alert me when eLetters are posted Alert me if a correction is posted Citation Map Services Email this article to a friend Similar articles in this journal Similar articles in PubMed Alert me to new issues of the journal Download to citation manager Request Permissions Citing Articles Citing Articles via Google Scholar Google Scholar Articles by Doukhanina, E. V. Articles by Dickman, M. B. Search for Related Content PubMed PubMed Citation Articles by Doukhanina, E. V. Articles by Dickman, M. B. Social Bookmarking                      What's this?

Identification and Functional Characterization of the BAG Protein Family in Arabidopsis thaliana^*

Elena V. Doukhanina, Shaorong Chen, Esther van der Zalm, Adam Godzik^¶, John Reed^¶, and Martin B. Dickman¹

From the Institute for Plant Genomics and Biotechnology, Texas A&M University, College Station, Texas 77843-2123, the Department of Plant Pathology, University of Nebraska, Lincoln, Nebraska 68583, and ^¶The Burnham Institute, La Jolla, California 92037

The genes that control mammalian programmed cell death are conserved across wide evolutionary distances. Although plant cells can undergo apoptosis-like cell death, plant homologs of mammalian regulators of apoptosis have, in general, not been found. This is in part due to the lack of primary sequence conservation between animal and putative plant regulators of apoptosis. Thus, alternative approaches beyond sequence similarities are required to find functional plant homologs of apoptosis regulators. Here, we present the results of using advanced bioinformatic tools to uncover the Arabidopsis family of BAG proteins. The mammalian BAG (Bcl-2-associated athanogene) proteins are a family of chaperone regulators that modulate a number of diverse processes ranging from proliferation to growth arrest and cell death. Such proteins are distinguished by a conserved BAG domain that directly interacts with Hsp70 and Hsc70 proteins to regulate their activity. Our searches of the Arabidopsis thaliana genome sequence revealed seven homologs of the BAG protein family. We further show that plant BAG family members are also multifunctional and remarkably similar to their animal counterparts, as they regulate apoptosis-like processes ranging from pathogen attack to abiotic stress and development.

Received for publication, November 1, 2005 , and in revised form, March 24, 2006.

^* This work was supported by National Science Foundation Grant IBN 0133078, National Institutes of Health Grant GM 67329 and Idun Pharmaceuticals Inc. The costs of publication of this article were defrayed in part by the payment of page charges. This article must therefore be hereby marked "advertisement" in accordance with 18 U.S.C. Section 1734 solely to indicate this fact.

The on-line version of this article (available at http://www.jbc.org) contains supplemental "Materials and Methods," Figs. S1-S9, and Table S1.

¹ To whom correspondence should be addressed: Inst. for Plant Genomics and Biotechnology, 2123 TAMU, Bldg. 1513, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX 77843-2123. Tel.: 979-862-4788; Fax: 979-862-4790; E-mail: mbdickman{at}tamu.edu.

CiteULike    Complore    Connotea    Del.icio.us    Digg    Reddit    Technorati    What's this?