Genome-wide analysis of CCCH zinc finger family in Arabidopsis and rice

Abstract

Background: Genes in the CCCH family encode zinc finger proteins containing the motif with three cysteines and one histidine residues. They have been known to play important roles in RNA processing as RNA-binding proteins in animals. To date, few plant CCCH proteins have been studied functionally.

The Arabidopsis CALLOSE DEFECTIVE MICROSPORE1 Gene Is Required for Male Fertility through Regulating Callose Metabolism during Microsporogenesis

“…CDM1 encodes a protein with TZF domains, each containing three Cys and one His that coordinate a zinc atom (Lai et al, 2000); this type of zinc finger protein is involved in various developmental processes and environmental responses in plants (Li and Thomas, 1998;Sun et al, 2007;Kim et al, 2008;Wang et al, 2008;Lin et al, 2011). TZF proteins were initially identified in animals with two highly similar C-X8-C-X5-C-X3-H motifs (X represents variable amino acids) that are separated by 18 amino acids between the carboxyl terminal H of the first zinc finger and the amino terminal C of the second zinc finger (Blackshear et al, 2005).…”

A CCCH-Type Zinc Finger Nucleic Acid-Binding Protein Quantitatively Confers Resistance against Rice Bacterial Blight Disease

“…(Kong et al, 2006;Wang et al, 2008b). Although the expression profiles of CCCH-type zinc finger protein genes in Arabidopsis and rice suggest that most members in one plantspecific subfamily of the CCCH-type gene family may be involved in abiotic or biotic stress tolerance (Wang et al, 2008a), the only evidence, so far, that CCCH-type protein is involved in plant-pathogen interaction involves cotton (Gossypium hirsutum) GhZFP1 (Guo et al, 2009). The GhZFP1 positively regulates resistance to the fungal pathogen Rhizoctonia solani in tobacco (Nicotiana tabacum) in addition to enhancing tobacco tolerance to salt stress.…”

“…CCCH-type zinc finger proteins belong to a superfamily divided into nine classes (C2H2, C8, C6, C3HC4, C2HC, C2HC5, C4, C4HC3, and CCCH) according to the numbers of conserved Cys (C) and His (H) residues and the spacing between these conserved residues (Berg and Shi, 1996;Takatsuji, 1998). A CCCH-type zinc finger protein usually contains one or more tandemly arranged zinc-binding motifs characterized by three Cys residues followed by one His, with the characteristics CX 5-14 -CX 4-5 -CX 3 -H (where X indicates any amino acid; Blackshear, 2002;Wang et al, 2008a). The CCCH-type zinc finger genes are widely present in eukaryotes (Anderson et al, 1993;Tabara et al, 1999;Carballo et al, 2000;Li et al, 2001;Gao et al, 2002;Kong et al, 2006;Guo et al, 2009), and there are at least 68 genes in Arabidopsis (Arabidopsis thaliana) and 67 in rice (Oryza sativa; Wang et al, 2008a).…”

“…A CCCH-type zinc finger protein usually contains one or more tandemly arranged zinc-binding motifs characterized by three Cys residues followed by one His, with the characteristics CX 5-14 -CX 4-5 -CX 3 -H (where X indicates any amino acid; Blackshear, 2002;Wang et al, 2008a). The CCCH-type zinc finger genes are widely present in eukaryotes (Anderson et al, 1993;Tabara et al, 1999;Carballo et al, 2000;Li et al, 2001;Gao et al, 2002;Kong et al, 2006;Guo et al, 2009), and there are at least 68 genes in Arabidopsis (Arabidopsis thaliana) and 67 in rice (Oryza sativa; Wang et al, 2008a). This type of protein has been reported to regulate genes at the posttranscriptional or transcriptional level (Li et al, 2001;Wang et al, 2008b).…”

“…A previous study revealed that rice cDNA EI38D7 (GenBank accession no. BF108310), corresponding to C3H12 (locus identifier LOC_Os01g68860; http://rice.plantbiology.msu.edu/index.shtml) based on the reported naming system for the rice CCCH-type zinc finger family (Wang et al, 2008a), is a defenseresponsive gene; its expression was induced in rice resistance against Xoo (Zhou et al, 2002). In addition, EI38D7 colocalized with a minor resistance QTL on chromosome 1, based on bioinformatic analysis (Xiong et al, 2002).…”