Proteomic analysis of serine/threonine kinase gene family in maize

Abstract

The proteomic analysis of serine/threonine kinase (STK) genes was conducted using various bioinformatics tools. Eight members of STK gene family were obtained from NCBI having more than 80% similarity with STK1 and STK2. The results of analysis revealed that their domains and conserved motifs has similar positions on the sequence and possibly perform similar functions. The results of expansion mode of STK showed that it belongs to tandem repeat mode. The phylogenetic tree revealed that STKs in maize existed before the species differentiation. The STKs in maize belong to paralog relationship, which shows that they might have common ancestral genes, representing that USP domain in STKs was already present before species differentiation. Thus the present study would be helpful in better understanding of genetic evolutionary relationship of homological sequences of STK1 and STK2 with its other members, and the similarities as well as differences between the structure and function of each member of the STK gene family.