Class I HDZ transcription factor plays a non-conserved function in Marchantia polymorpha

MORENO JE; ROMANI F; FLORENT SN; BOWMAN JL

Lisboa

Workshop; New shores in land plant evolution; 2018

European Molecular Biology Organization

Thehomeodomain leucine-zipper (HDZ) transcription factors (TF) are criticalregulators of plant developmental and environmental responses. The familyconsists of four classes, each one is characterized by specific domains. Inflowering plants, Class I HDZs (C1HDZ) modulate molecular responses to droughtbut are also involved in others molecular functions according to loss andgain-of-function phenotypes. Despite the genetic redundancy of HDZ genes inhigher plants (Romani et al., 2016), the Marchantiapolymorpha genome contains only a single copy of each class. The MpC1HDZortholog resembles all angiosperm C1HDZ structural features (Romani et al.,2018) but its function in basal land plants is unknown. We propose that thesole homolog in Marchantia is a good model to understand the function of thisTF family in an evolutionary perspective.