The Peroxidase Gene Family in Plants: A Phylogenetic Overview

The 73 class III peroxidase genes in Arabidopsis thaliana were used for surveying the evolutionary relationships among peroxidases in the plant kingdom. In Arabidopsis, the 73 genes were clustered in robust similarity groups. Comparison to peroxidases from other angiosperms showed that the diversity observed in Arabidopsis preceded the radiation of dicots, whereas some clusters were absent from grasses. Grasses contained some unique peroxidase clusters not seen in dicot plants. We found peroxidases in other major groups of land plants but not in algae. This might indicate that the class III peroxidase gene family appeared with the colonization of land by plants. The present survey may be used as a rational basis for further investigating the functional roles of class III peroxidases.