Cloning and sequence analysis of nine novel MYB genes in Taxodiaceae plants

Myeloblastosis (MYB) is one of the largest transcribed factor families in plants. To gain an overall picture of the evolution of MYB genes in relict plants, we cloned nine novel MYB genes in Taxodiaceae plants (Taxodium distichum, Taxodium ascendens, Cryptomeria japonica var. Sinensis, Cryptomeria japonica cv. Araucarioides, Cryptomer Japonica, Metasequoia glyptostroboides, Cunninghamia lanceolata, Taiwania cryptomerioides and Glyptostrobus pensilis). The deduced amino acid sequences for MYBs showed that the nine MYB proteins contained two DNA binding domains. The first domain is from amino acid position 29 to 78, wherein three tryptophanes at 33, 53 and 73 were separated by 19 amino acids, respectively. The second domain is from amino acid position 82 to 127, wherein three tryptophanes at 86, 105 and 124 were separated by 18 amino acids, respectively, whereas the first tryptophane at amino acid position 86 is replaced by a phenylalanine. The characterization of these conserved domains at nine MYBs indicated that they all belong to the R2R3-MYB group. The secondary structure analysis showed that α-helix and β-turn are the major motifs of the predicted secondary structure of MYBs. The three dimensional model of each MYB protein showed that the structure is like clip, making it more flexible and mobile. The similarities between the nine MYB proteins in Taxodiaceae were calculated. The highest identical value of 99% is between CjsMYB, CjMYB and CjaMYB, whereas the lowest value of 82% is between TaMYB and ClMYB. According to the phylogenetic tree, the distances between different genera were relatively large whereas those within genera were relatively small. As expected, accessions of the same genus formed a subgroup before being grouped with other genera.