p73 and p63 are members of the p53 gene family and have been shown to play an important role in development and homeostasis mainly by regulating the transcription of a variety of genes. A subset of these genes encodes secreted proteins and receptors that may be involved in the communication between adjacent cells. We report here that flotillin-2, a major hydrophobic protein on biomembrane micro...

We report here the cloning and characterization of four new members of the interleukin-1 (IL-1) family (FIL1delta, FIL1epsilon, FIL1zeta, and FIL1eta, with FIL1 standing for "Family of IL-1"). The novel genes demonstrate significant sequence similarity to IL-1alpha, IL-1beta, IL-1ra, and IL-18, and in addition maintain a conserved exon-intron arrangement that is shared with the previously known...

The FLOWERING LOCUS T (FT)/TERMINAL FLOWER 1 (TFL1) family proteins play an important role in the regulation of flowering time. In the Arabidopsis thaliana genome, there are six genes in the FT/TFL1 family. To determine how these FT/TFL1 family genes contribute to the regulation of flowering time, this study generated a comprehensive set of mutants (sixty-three multiple mutants in all combinati...

Human UDP-glucuronosyltransferases (UGTs) are expressed in a tissue-specific fashion in hepatic and extrahepatic tissues [Strassburg, Manns and Tukey (1998) J. Biol. Chem. 273, 8719-8726]. Previous work suggests that these enzymes play a protective role in chemical carcinogenesis [Strassburg, Manns and Tukey (1997) Cancer Res. 57, 2979-2985]. In this study, UGT1 and UGT2 gene expression was inv...

This manuscript presents the first extensive phylogenetics analysis of a key family of immune regulators, the interferon regulatory factor (IRF) family. The IRF family encodes transcription factors that play important roles in immune defense, stress responses, reproduction, development, and carcinogenesis. Several times during their evolution, the IRF genes have undergone expansion and diversif...

The WRKY gene family encodes a large group of transcription factors that regulate genes involved in plant response to biotic and abiotic stresses. Sorghum is a notable grain and forage crop in semi-arid regions because of its unusual tolerance against hot and dry environments. We identified a set of 85 WRKY genes in the S. bicolor genome and classified them into three groups (I–III). Among the ...

Megabalanus coccopoma (Darwin, 1854) is a globally invasive species in Balanomorpha (Crustacea). This model organism for studying marine pollution and ecology. However, its mitogenome remains unknown. The sequencing of M. completed the present study. It has 15,098 bp length, including 13 protein-coding genes (PCGs), 2 ribosomal RNAs (rRNAs), 22 transfer (tRNAs), along with putative regulatory a...

Ammonium transporters (AMTs) are plasma membrane proteins that exclusively transport ammonium/ammonia. These proteins are encoded by an ancient gene family with many members. The molecular characteristics and evolutionary history of AMTs in woody plants are still poorly understood. We comprehensively evaluated the AMT gene family in the latest release of the Populus trichocarpa genome (version ...