Plants contain small families of UPF0016 proteins including the PHOTOSYNTHESIS AFFECTED MUTANT71 transporter.

PHOTOSYNTHESIS AFFECTED MUTANT71 (PAM71) is an integral thylakoid membrane protein that functions in manganese uptake into the lumen. Manganese is needed in the thylakoid lumen to build up the inorganic Mn4CaO5 cluster, the catalytic center for water oxidation, and is hence indispensable for oxygen evolution. A recent study revealed that PAM71 is well conserved in plants and shares homology to GCR1 DEPENDENT TRANSLATION FACTOR1 (GDT1) and TRANSMEMBRANE PROTEIN 165 (TMEM165) in Saccharomyces cerevisiae and Homo sapiens, respectively. In most eukaryotes only single members of this family, designated "Uncharacterized Protein Family 0016" (UPF0016), are present; however, plant genomes contain genes for several UPF0016 proteins. In Arabidopsis thaliana, this protein family comprises 5 members, which mainly differ in their N-terminal regions. PAM71 and its closest homolog PAM71-HL possess chloroplast transit peptides at their N-terminus. Two of the remaining 3 members are derived from a segmental chromosomal duplication event and lack an N-terminal extension. Thus, plants have evolved UPF0016 members residing in various compartments of the cell, whereas in non-plant eukaryotes just a Golgi localization occurs. The identification of PAM71 as a candidate Mn2+ transporter opens the question on the function of the remaining plant members. Here we resume briefly our current knowledge of UPF0016 members in Arabidopsis in comparison to their yeast and human UPF0016 members.