Biotechnology Bulletin ›› 2017, Vol. 33 ›› Issue (11): 19-28.doi: 10.13560/j.cnki.biotech.bull.1985.2017-0261

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Research Advances of NDPKs in Plants

ZHU Xin-ni1, WANG Shan-shan1, ZHOU Jia-qin2, ZHU Shi-hua2   

  1. 1. School of Marine Science,Ningbo University,Ningbo 315211;
    2. College of Science and Technology,Ningbo University,Ningbo 315211
  • Received:2017-04-01 Online:2017-11-26 Published:2017-11-22

Abstract: Nucleoside diphosphate kinases(NDPKs)are a class of highly conserved proteins with a size between 70 to 100 kD. They exist as hexamers in most organisms while as tetramers only in few prokaryotes. NDPKs are mainly responsible for keeping the in vivo cellular balance between nucleoside diphosphates and nucleoside triphosphates. Four types of NDPKs,i.e.,NDPKⅠ,NDPKⅡ,NDPKⅢ and NDPKⅣ,are found in plants,however,till now researches have been mainly focused on the first three. NDPKIs are found to be involved in plant growth and development,and response to abiotic stress,pathogens and hormones. NDPKⅡs take part in photosynthesis and removal of reactive oxygen species. NDPKIIIs are involved in energy metabolism and programmed cell death. NDPKIVs are only found in Arabidopsis and rice genomes and predicted to be located in endoplasmic reticulum with unknown function. Besides,NDPKs also display special functions in certain plants,such as DNA replication,starch and cellulose synthesis,auxin signaling and ribozyme activities;however,whether these functions are species-specific needs further study. This article summarizes the phylogenetic analysis and the most recent research progress on biological functions of NDPKs. Finally,the article discusses the prospect of NDPKs research,thus it will facilitate the in-depth and comprehensive study of their function in plants in the future.

Key words: nucleoside diphosphate kinase, NDPK, phylogeny analysis, function