Fibrillin gene family and its role in plant growth, development, and abiotic stress

Ahmed H El-Sappah; Jia Li; Kuan Yan; ChaoYang Zhu; Qiulan Huang; Yumin Zhu; Yu Chen; Khaled A El-Tarabily; Synan F AbuQamar

doi:10.3389/fpls.2024.1453974

Fibrillin gene family and its role in plant growth, development, and abiotic stress

Front Plant Sci. 2024 Oct 29:15:1453974. doi: 10.3389/fpls.2024.1453974. eCollection 2024.

Authors

Ahmed H El-Sappah^#^{1

2}, Jia Li^#¹, Kuan Yan^#¹, ChaoYang Zhu^#¹, Qiulan Huang¹, Yumin Zhu¹, Yu Chen¹, Khaled A El-Tarabily³, Synan F AbuQamar³

Affiliations

¹ College of Agriculture, Forestry, and Food Engineering, Yibin University, Yibin, Sichuan, China.
² Department of Genetics, Faculty of Agriculture, Zagazig University, Zagazig, Egypt.
³ Department of Biology, College of Science, United Arab Emirates University, Al Ain, United Arab Emirates.

^# Contributed equally.

Abstract

Fibrillins (FBNs), highly conserved plastid lipid-associated proteins (PAPs), play a crucial role in plant physiology. These proteins, encoded by nuclear genes, are prevalent in the plastoglobules (PGs) of chloroplasts. FBNs are indispensable for maintaining plastid stability, promoting plant growth and development, and enhancing stress responses. The conserved PAP domain of FBNs was found across a wide range of photosynthetic organisms, from plants and cyanobacteria. FBN families are classified into 12 distinct groups/clades, with the 12th group uniquely present in algal-fungal symbiosis. This mini review delves into the structural attributes, phylogenetic classification, genomic features, protein-protein interactions, and functional roles of FBNs in plants, with a special focus on their effectiveness in mitigating abiotic stresses, particularly drought stress.

Keywords: FBNs; PAPS; drought stress; photosynthetic tissue; plastoglobules; plastoglobulin.

Publication types

Review

Grants and funding

The author(s) declare financial support was received for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. This work was supported by the Natural Science Foundation of Sichuan Province (NO. 23NSFSC4725), Abu Dhabi Award for Research Excellence– Department of Education and Knowledge (Grant number: 21S105), UAEU program of Advanced Research (Grant number: 12S169), and Khalifa Center for Biotechnology and Genetic Engineering-UAEU (Grant number: 12R028).