Identification, evolutionary and expression profile analysis of the aspartic protease gene superfamily in Arabidopsis thaliana and rice

Aspartic proteases (APs), a large family of proteolytic enzymes with diverse functions, play important roles in many aspects of physiological and developmental processes in plants. However, systematic studies on their classification, molecular evolution and function are still lacking. In this study, information about APs including gene sequence, subfamily classification, gene structure, sub-cellular localization and chromosomal location of all known APs in Arabidopsis and rice were collected, and analyzed by bioinformatics tools. In addition, the difference in spatio-temporal expression and function of these APs between Arabidopsis and rice was investigated using available trasnscriptomic data. Furthermore, the expression pattern of each of the APs genes along anther development was highlighted, which provides a framework for future studies defining the roles of APs in anther development