Understanding DNA repair and recombination in higher plant genome: information from genome-wide screens in Arabidopsis and rice.

Recently we have reported the in silico identification and in depth analysis of genes potentially involve in DNA repair and recombination (DRR) in two fully sequenced higher plant genomes, Arabidopsis and rice. In spite of strong conservation of DRR gene along with all three domain of life, we found some peculiar difference in presence and function of DRR genes in plants. Beside the eukaryotic homologs, several prokaryotes specific genes were also found to be well conserved in both plant genomes. Several functionally important DRR gene duplications were found in Arabidopsis, which do not occur in rice. In spite of the fact that same DRR protein functions in different DNA repair pathways, we found that proteins belonging to the nucleotide excision repair (NER) pathway were relatively more conserved than proteins needed for the other DRR pathways. Identified DRR gene were found to reside in nucleus mainly while gene drain in between nucleus and cell organelles were also found in some cases. Here, we have discussed the peculiar features of DRR genes in higher plant genomes.