Classification and Expression Analysis of Arabidopsis F-Box-Containing Protein Genes

Abstract F-box proteins regulate diverse cellular processes, including cell cycle transition, transcriptional regulation and signal transduction, by playing roles in Skp1p-cullin-F-box protein (SCF) complexes or non-SCF complexes. F-box proteins are encoded by a large gene family. Our database search revealed that at least 568 F-box protein genes are present in the Arabidopsisthaliana (Arabidopsis) genome. Domain search analysis using SMART and Pfam-A databases revealed that 67 of the F-box proteins contained Kelch repeats and 29 contained leucine-rich repeats (LRRs). Interestingly only two F-box proteins contained WD40 repeats that are found in many F-box proteins of other organisms. Kelch repeats, LRRs and WD40 repeats are implicated in protein–protein interactions. This analysis also resulted in the finding of several unique functional domains; however, 448 of the F-box proteins did not contain any known domains. Therefore, these proteins were used to search the Pfam-B database to find novel domains, and three putative ones were found. These domain search analyses led us to classify the Arabidopsis F-box proteins into at least 19 groups based on their domain structures. Macro array analysis showed that several F-box protein genes are expressed in a tissue-specific manner.