Monocot chimeric jacalins: a novel subfamily of plant lectins

Abstract

Monocot chimeric jacalins are a small group of lectins (currently with nine members), each typically consisting of a dirigent domain and a jacalin-related lectin domain. This unique module structure, along with their limited taxonomic distribution and short time window in molecular evolution, makes them a novel family of lectins. Recent studies have shown that these proteins play important roles in plant stress responses and development. Our knowledge of these proteins in functional domain and evolution has also made significant progress.

• Chimeric gene
• dirigent
• gene evolution
• jacalin-related lectins
• lectins
• module protein
• monocot chimeric jacalins

Acknowledgements

This work was supported by grants from the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 31170277, No. 31070235), the Natural Science Foundation of Beijing (No. 5122024, No. 6082018), and Innovation Project of Chinese Academy of Sciences. The author thanks reviewers for very constructive comments.