Genome-wide analysis of PHD-finger protein family in Arabidopsis thaliana.

PHD-finger proteins were found universally in eukaryotes and known as key players in regulating chromatin or transcription.In animals,many PHD-finger proteins had been well studied on structure and function.Compared to animals,only a few of plant PHD-finger proteins had been characterized functionally.By both SMART and Pfam searches,70 members of the PHD-finger family were identified in Arabidopsis thaliana.Most of the PHD-finger proteins in Arabidopsis thaliana were functionally unknown.A complete overview of this family by bioinformatic approach were presented in this paper,including the gene structure,gene localization in genome,gene expression,protein motif organization,and phylogenetic relationship of each family member.These results should provide useful information for the further structural and functional studies of PHD-finger proteins.