Genome-wide identification and evolutionary analysis of Arabidopsis sm genes family

Sm proteins are members of a family of small proteins that are widespread in biosphere and found associated with RNA metabolism. To date, to our knowledge, only Arabidopsis SAD1 gene has been studied functionally in plant. In this study, 42 Sm genes are identified through comprehensive analysis in Arabidopsis. And a complete overview of this gene family is presented, including the gene structures, phylogeny, chromosome locations, selection pressure and expression. The results reveal that gene duplication contributes to the expansion of the Sm gene family in Arabidopsis genome, diverse expression patterns suggest their functional differentiation and divergence analysis indicates purifying selection as a key role in evolution. Our comparative genomics analysis of Sm genes will provide the first step towards the future experimental research on determining the functions of these genes.