MADS Transcription Factor Family
Members of the MADS box family are known to be predominately involved in developmental processes and are found in animal as
well as plant species. In plants, the gene family has greatly expanded and this appears to have been instrumental in shaping
the evolution of the true flower around 120-150 million years ago . As with other families of transcription factors, these
genes share a common DNA binding domain, in this case the MADS box domain. MADS box factors bind to the CArG box
(CC(A/T)6GG) that shows dyad symmetry . MADS box proteins form multimeric protein complexes that interact with promoter
sequences on their target genes. Many of these interactions are between MADS box genes but interactions also occur with
other types of protein . The first two MADS box genes to be discovered in plants were DEFICIENS (DEF) from Antirrhinum majus
and AGAMOUS (AG) from Arabidopsis and work on MADS box genes and floral organ formation has led to the ABCDE model that
explains how transcription factors acting alone or in combination can lead to the formation of floral organs. All of these
transcription factors except APETELA2 are MADS box genes.
Phylogenetic analysis of MADS box genes from fungi, animals and plants, suggests that there are two main lineages, type I
and type II, caused by a gene duplication that occurred before the divergence of plants and animals . The complete
Arabidopsis gene family demonstrates that MADS box genes can be further divided into five subgroups (MIKC, M?, M?, M?, and
M?) based on phylogenetic relationships of the MADS box domain . Most known MADS box mutants are found in the MIKC group
which together with M? make up the type II genes.
217 predicted putative MADS TF peptide,
CDS, and cDNA sequences;
blast HSP, and multiple sequence alignment in
Soy - TFKB.
SRF-TF domain peptide sequences with alignment
and phylogeny tree.
40 MADS protein
and
DNA sequences with
annotations for soybean in PlantTFDB. Most are partial sequences.
Last updated by Dr. Jeff Chen on June 5, 2009.
