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TOBFAC: The database of tobacco transcription factors

Family: YABBY

Minimum number of tobacco YABBY genes: 10

Count of tobacco YABBY sequences: 11

Pfam accession:YABBY

SHOULD possess YABBY domain and COULD   possess HMG_box domain

The establishment of abaxial-adaxial polarity in lateral organs involves factors intrinsic to the primordia and interactions with the apical meristem from which they are derived. Recently, a small plant-specific family of genes, the YABBY gene family, has been proposed to specify abaxial cell fate. Each asymmetric above-ground lateral organ expresses at least one member of the family in a polar manner, and loss- and gain-of-function studies indicate that they are sufficient to specify abaxial cell fate and that they act in both distinct and redundant manners.

Members of the YABBY gene family are characterized by two conserved domains, a C2C2 zinc finger-like domain towards the amino terminus and a helix-loop-helix, which we have called the YABBY domain, with sequence similarity to the first two helices of the HMG box towards the carboxyl end of the protein.In addition to the conserved YABBY and zinc finger domains, YAB1, YAB2, YAB3 and YAB5 display some sequence similarity on the carboxyl side of the YABBY domain. The region between the YABBY and zinc finger domains is variable amongst family members.

The presence of these domains suggests these proteins function as transcription factors. Database searches suggest that this family may be plant-specific, as genes with a similar arrangement of zinc finger and YABBY domains do not occur in either Caenorhabditis elegans or Saccharomyces cerevisiae.

The YABBY gene are expressed in a polar manner in all lateral organs produced by apical and flower meristems. Their transcripts are detectable only in the abaxial domains of lateral organs when their primordia emerge and begin to differentiate. Loss of polar expression of these genes results in loss of polar differentiation of cell types in lateral organs, and gain-of-function alleles result in abaxialization of lateral organs. The expression of these genes is precisely correlated with abaxial cell fate in mutants in which abaxial cell fates are found ectopically, reduced or eliminated. We propose that members of this gene family act redundantly to specify abaxial identity in lateral organs produced by the apical and flower meristems in Arabidopsis.

Papers

Bowman, JL; Smyth, DR. CRABS CLAW, a gene that regulates carpel and nectary development in Arabidopsis, encodes a novel protein with zinc finger and helix-loop-helix domains. Development 1999. 126(11):2387-96 PMID: 10225998

Kumaran, MK; Bowman, JL; Sundaresan, V. YABBY polarity genes mediate the repression of KNOX homeobox genes in Arabidopsis. Plant Cell 2002. 14(11):2761-70 PMID: 12417699

Golz, JF; Hudson, A. Plant development: YABBYs claw to the fore. Curr. Biol. 1999. 9(22):R861-3 PMID: 10574752

Number of contigs: 10

Number of singlets: 1

1st and 2nd exons – 5

1st exon – 1

2nd exon – 1

Number of full – 4

Total minimum number – 10

Search sequences and info

Transcription factor sequences

Tobacco published genes related to transcription factor family YABBY

Authors of this site:

Paul J Rushton
Marta T. Bokowiec
Xianfeng (Jeff) Chen
Thomas (Tom) W Laudeman
Jennifer F. Brannock
Michael P. Timko

Contact:

pr8y@virginia.edu