The tubby-like proteins kingdom in animals and plants

Each gene of the tubby-like family is characterized by a signature of C-terminal tubby domain. The wide spread of this family in plants and animals implies they have an important function in various organisms. Even though the tubby-like genes are suggested to be putative transcription factors (TFs), how they execute the function as TFs is not yet clear. The biological functions of most animal tubby-like genes have been well studied, especially for vertebrate TUB, TULP1 and TULP3, but not with TULP2 and TULP4. Plants possess more tubby-like genes than animals, but their functions are still elusive except the idea that they are involved in stress responses with indistinct mechanisms. Here we reviewed the current knowledge of the versatile functions and roles of the tubby-like family members in plants and animals.