植物小热激蛋白的研究进展

Research Progress on Small Heat Shock Proteins in Plants

小热激蛋白是一种重要的分子伴侣,普遍存在于所有生物体内。在植物中,小热激蛋白是含量最丰富、分布最为广泛的热激蛋白。植物小热激蛋白具有的保守ACD结构域和可变的两端序列区域,参与细胞生命活动的多个重要进程,能够响应高温、干旱、低温、病原菌等生物、非生物胁迫。进化分析发现小热激蛋白不同的基因亚族可能经历了不同的进化过程,基因重复、序列趋异以及基因转换等是这些基因家族演化过程中的重要进化动力。本综述主要总结了植物小热激蛋白种类分布、结构功能、基因表达调控以及起源进化等方面的研究进展,并对未来小热激蛋白的研究方向提出了展望,以期为深入研究小热激蛋白及实际应用提供参考。

Small heat shock proteins（s Hsps） are crucial molecular chaperones that have been found in all the living organisms. In plant, they represent the most abundant and widespread class among the HSPs. Small Hsps comprised a conserved alpha-crystallin domain（ACD） which is flanked by variable C-terminal and N-terminal regions. These proteins participated in multiple essential processes of cellular activities and could respond to abiotic and biotic stresses, such as heat, drought, cold, pathogens, etc. Phylogenetic analysis revealed that the diverse subfamilies of s Hsps in plant might go through divergent evolutionary processes. Primary evolutionary forces, like gene duplication, sequence divergence and gene conversion, played important roles in shaping these subfamilies. In the current paper, we reviews the characteristics of s Hsps family in plant, including the category,distribution, structure, function, gene expression, as well as the origin and evolution, and the prospect in the future research directions of s Hsps was put forward. The review reported in this paper was aimed at providing deeper insights into s Hsps and references for practical applications.