Evolutionary and comparative analysis of MYB and bHLH plant transcription factors

The expansion of gene families encoding regulatory proteins is typically associated with the increase in complexity characteristic of multi-cellular organisms. The MYB and basic helix-loop-helix (bHLH) families provide excellent examples of how gene duplication and divergence within particular groups of transcription factors are associated with, if not driven by, the morphological and metabolic diversity that characterize the higher plants. These gene families expanded dramatically in higher plants; for example, there are approximately 339 and 162 MYB and bHLH genes, respectively, in Arabidopsis, and approximately 230 and 111, respectively, in rice. In contrast, the Chlamydomonas genome has only 38 MYB genes…

• NS
  National Science Foundation

  Award: 0701405
• UD
  U.S. Department of Energy

  Awards: DE-FG02-, FG02-07ER15881, DE-FG02
• UD
  U.S. Department of Agriculture
• NI
  National Institute of Food and Agriculture