Ancient signals: comparative genomics of green plant CDPKs

Abstract

Calcium-dependent protein kinases (CDPKs) are multifunctional proteins combining calcium-binding and signaling capabilities within a single gene product. This unique versatility enables multiple plant biological processes to be controlled, including developmental programs and stress responses. The genome of flowering plants typically encodes around 30 CDPK homologs that cluster in four conserved clades. In this Review, we take advantage of the recent availability of genome sequences from green algae and early land plants to examine how well the previously described CDPK family from angiosperms compares to the broader evolutionary states associated with early diverging green plant lineages. Our analysis suggests that the current architecture of the CDPK family was shaped during the colonization of the land by plants, whereas CDPKs from ancestor green algae have continued to evolve independently.

Direct Phosphorylation and Activation of a Mitogen-Activated Protein Kinase by a Calcium-Dependent Protein Kinase in Rice

“…Thus, the CPK18-MPK5 pathway may not be an exception but likely represents a conserved regulatory mechanism for a specific subset of CDPKs to modulate group A and B MAPKs in plants. Interestingly, group IV CDPKs appear to have evolved only in land plants (Hamel et al, 2014), whereas Thr-14/Thr-32 residues are conserved in the MAPKs of land plants but are absent in green algae ( Figure 4D). This evolutionary coincidence suggests that the CDPK-MAPK pathway might have emerged during the evolution of land plants as an adaptation to environmental changes.…”

“…Ca 2+ is a ubiquitous secondary messenger in cellular signal transduction and is decoded by various Ca 2+ binding proteins and kinases such as calcium-dependent protein kinase (CDPK) (Harper et al, 2004). CDPK is an ancient family of Ser/Thr kinases that has evolved independently in green algae and land plants (Hamel et al, 2014). There are 34 and 29 CDPKs in Arabidopsis and rice (Cheng et al, 2002;Asano et al, 2005), respectively.…”

Two Calcium-Dependent Protein Kinases fromChlamydomonas reinhardtiiare transcriptionally regulated by nutrient starvation

“…39 In addition, algae such as D. tertiolecta and C. moewusii shared 63% and 58% identity to the CrCDPK1 while a 53% and 51% identity to CrCDPK3, respectively. As of now, these algal CDPKs have been characterized as Ca 2+ -binding and Ca 2+ -dependent Protein Kinases.…”

Decrypting Calcium Signaling in Plants: The Kinase Way

“…Analysis also showed that group I predates the origin of seed plants, where three sub-subfamilies consist of an Amborella CDPK orthologue and two subfamilies include CDPKs from Ginkgo (Chen et al 2013a , b , c ). Hamel et al ( 2013 ) studied the evolution of green plant CDPK genes using the genome sequence from early land plants and suggested that a consensus structure of the CDPK family is shared between all land plants; however, the green algae homologues form distinct clades (Hamel et al 2013 ). Phylogenetic analysis of 48 putative CDPK genes from green alga belonging to eight Chlorophyta and Streptophyta species showed that two clades of the four groups have at least one representative member from each of the eight Chlorophyta species examined.…”