Arabidopsis kinome: after the casting

Arabidopsis thaliana is used as a favourite experimental organism for many aspects of plant biology. We capitalized on the recently available Arabidopsis genome sequence and predicted proteome, to draw up a genome-scale protein serine/threonine kinase (PSTK) inventory. The PSTKs represent about 4% of the A. thaliana proteome. In this study, we provide a description of the content and diversity of the non-receptor PSTKs. These kinases have crucial functions in sensing, mediating and coordinating cellular responses to an extensive range of stimuli. A total of 369 predicted non receptor PSTKs were detailed: the Raf superfamily, the CMGC, CaMK, AGC and STE families, as well as a few small clades and orphan sequences. An extensive relationship analysis of these kinases allows us to classify the proteins in superfamilies, families, sub-families and groups. The classification provides a better knowledge of the characteristics shared by the different clades. We focused on the MAP kinase module elements, with particular attention to their docking sites for protein-protein interaction and their biological function. The large number of A. thaliana genes encoding kinases might have been achieved through successive rounds of gene and genome duplications. The evolution towards an increasing gene number suggests that functional redundancy plays an important role in plant genetic robustness.