Genome-wide analyses of phenylpropanoid-related genes in Populus trichocarpa, Arabidopsis thaliana, and Oryza sativa:: the Populus lignin toolbox and conservation and diversification of angiosperm gene families

The completion of the Populus trichocarpa (Torr. & A. Gray) (poplar) genome sequence offers an opportunity to study complete genome families in a third fully sequenced angiosperm (after Arabidopsis and rice) and to conduct comparative genomics studies of angiosperm gene family evolution. We focussed on gene families encoding phenylpropanoid and phenylpropanoid-like enzymes, and identified and annotated the full set of genes encoding these and related enzymes in the poplar genome. We used a similar approach to identify an analogous set of genes from the rice genome and generated phylogenetic trees for nine phenylpropanoid gene families from aligned poplar, Arabidopsis, and rice predicted protein sequences. This enabled us to identify the likely full set of bona fide poplar lignin-related phenylpropanoid genes (poplar "lignification toolbox") apparent within well-defined clades in all phylogenetic trees. Analysis of expression data for poplar genes confirmed and refined annotations of lignin-related genes, which generally showed high expression in wood-forming tissues. Expression data from both poplar and Arabidopsis were used to make inferences regarding biochemical and biological functions of phenylpropanoid-like genes with unknown functions. The comparative approach also provided insights into the evolution of angiosperm phenylpropanoid-like gene families, illustrating lineage-specific clades as well as ancient clades containing genes with apparent conserved function.