Hemoglobins of vascular plants: from model plants to crops (and way back)

Abstract

Here we present data on the phylogeny and some possible functons of Glbs in model plants and representatve crops, both monocots and dicots. Interestngly, monocots such as barley, rice and corn lack Glb2s, suggestng that this class of proteins appeared, probably as a result of gene duplicaton, afer the early divergence of angiosperms. Monocots and dicots may contain multple Glb1s that in some cases (barley, rice, soybean) have been biochemically characterized. Model plants for genetc and molecular biology studies are boostng the search for Glb functons.