%A Yuanyong Gong, Shuqiao Guo, Hongmei Shu, Wanchao Ni, Paerhati·Maimaiti, Xinlian Shen, Peng Xu, Xianggui Zhang, Qi Guo %T Analysis of Molecular Evolution and Gene Structure of EPSPS Protein in Plant Shikimate Pathway %0 Journal Article %D 2015 %J Chinese Bulletin of Botany %R 10.3724/SP.J.1259.2015.00295 %P 295-309 %V 50 %N 3 %U {https://www.chinbullbotany.com/CN/abstract/article_3006.shtml} %8 2015-05-01 %X 5-enolpyruvylshikimate-3-phosphate synthase (EPSPS), a key enzyme with a role in the shikimate pathway of aromatic amino acid biosynthesis in nearly all plants, bacteria, and fungi, is a target enzyme of the herbicide glyphosate [N-(phosphonomethyl) glycine]. The cloning of EPSPS genes can provide candidate gene for the development of glyphosate resistant transgenic crops. Comparative genomic analysis was used to investigate the evolutionary relationship among 43 EPSPS genes in 41 different plant species. The main results are as follows. (1) Various plant EPSPS protein sequences have the same functional domain, conserved motifs and conserved site. However, chloroplast transit peptide sequences significantly differ. (2) Phylogenetic analyses suggested that EPSPS genes correspond to two main branches according to dicotyledoneae and monocotyledoneae, and each small branch was classified based on species kinship of plants. (3) Exon-intron structure analysis revealed that the gene structures of EPSPS basically contained 8 exons and 7 introns, with only a marginal difference in corresponding exons but marked differences in all introns. The change in intron length was the main contributor to the structural diversity of plant EPSPS genes. This study provides valuable information for research into EPSPS proteins in plants.