Genetics, Vol 141, 785-795, Copyright © 1995

INVESTIGATIONS

The Molecular Evolution of the Small Heat-Shock Proteins in Plants

E. R. Waters
Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Arizona, Tucson, Arizona 85721

The small heat-shock proteins have undergone a tremendous diversification in plants; whereas only a single small heat-shock protein is found in fungi and many animals, over 20 different small heat-shock proteins are found in higher plants. The small heat-shock proteins in plants have diversified in both sequence and cellular localization and are encoded by at least five gene families. In this study, 44 small heat-shock protein DNA and amino acid sequences were examined, using both phylogenetic analysis and analysis of nucleotide substitution patterns to elucidate the evolutionary history of the small heat-shock proteins. The phylogenetic relationships of the small heat-shock proteins, estimated using parsimony and distance methods, reveal that gene duplication, sequence divergence and gene conversion have all played a role in the evolution of the small heat-shock proteins. Analysis of nonsynonymous substitutions and conservative and radical replacement substitutions (in relation to hydrophobicity) indicates that the small heat-shock protein gene families are evolving at different rates. This suggests that the small heat-shock proteins may have diversified in function as well as in sequence and cellular localization.

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