This is indeed the real terminal ear1, not a terminal ear like sequence

BLASTn provided the following top hits:

Sequences producing significant alignments: (Click headers to sort columns)

Accession	Description	Max score	Total score	Query coverage	E value	Max ident	Links
AF047852.1	Zea mays terminal ear1 mRNA, complete cds	4479	4479	99%	0.0	100%
AY741534.1	Sorghum bicolor TEL1 gene, partial sequence	1531	2076	64%	0.0	98%
AF348319.1	Zea mays TERMINAL EAR1 (te1) gene, complete cds	1447	4501	99%	0.0	100%

BLASTx provided the following top hits:

                                                                   Score     E
Sequences producing significant alignments:                       (Bits)  Value

ref|NP_001104903.1|  terminal ear1 [Zea mays] >sp|O65001.1|TE1...   877    0.0    
sp|A2WY46.1|PLA2_ORYSI  RecName: Full=Protein terminal ear1 ho...   578    8e-163
ref|NP_001045139.1|  Os01g0907900 [Oryza sativa (japonica cult...   578    8e-163 
gb|EAZ14552.1|  hypothetical protein OsJ_04474 [Oryza sativa J...   577    2e-162
gb|ABR19818.1|  terminal ear1-like 2 protein [Populus tremula ...   329    8e-88 
gb|ABR19817.1|  terminal ear1-like 1 protein [Populus tremula ...   252    1e-64 

Genetics. 1999 Nov;153(3):1455-62. Links

The molecular evolution of terminal ear1, a regulatory gene in the genus Zea.

White SE, Doebley JF.

Department of Plant Biology, University of Minnesota, Saint Paul, Minnesota 55108, USA.

Nucleotide diversity in the terminal ear1 (te1) gene, a regulatory locus hypothesized to be involved in the morphological evolution of maize (Zea mays ssp. mays), was investigated for evidence of past selection. Nucleotide polymorphism in a 1.4-kb region of te1 was analyzed for a sample of 26 sequences isolated from 12 maize lines, five populations of the maize progenitor, Z. mays ssp. parviglumis, six other Zea populations, and two Tripsacum species. Although nucleotide diversity in te1 in maize is reduced relative to ssp. parviglumis, phylogenetic and statistical analyses of the pattern of polymorphism among these sequences provided no evidence of past selection, indicating that the region of the gene studied was probably not involved in maize evolution. The level of reduction in genetic diversity in te1 in maize relative to its progenitor is comparable to that found in previous reports for isozymes and other neutrally evolving maize genes and is consistent with a genome-wide reduction of genetic diversity resulting from a domestication bottleneck. An estimate of the age (1.2-1.4 million yr) of the maize gene pool based on te1 is roughly consistent with previous estimates based on other neutral genes, but may be biased by the apparently slow synonymous substitution rate at te1.

PMID: 10545473 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]

J Exp Bot. 2005 Jun;56(416):1605-14. Epub 2005 Apr 18. Links

Expression patterns of TEL genes in Poaceae suggest a conserved association with cell differentiation.

Paquet N, Bernadet M, Morin H, Traas J, Dron M, Charon C.

Institut de Biotechnologie des Plantes (UMR8618), University of Paris XI, F-91405 Orsay Cedex, France.

Poaceae species present a conserved distichous phyllotaxy (leaf position along the stem) and share common properties with respect to leaf initiation. The goal of this work was to determine if these common traits imply common genes. Therefore, homologues of the maize TERMINAL EAR1 gene in Poaceae were studied. This gene encodes an RNA-binding motif (RRM) protein, that is suggested to regulate leaf initiation. Using degenerate primers, one unique tel (terminal ear1-like) gene from seven Poaceae members, covering almost all the phylogenetic tree of the family, was identified by PCR. These genes present a very high degree of similarity, a much conserved exon-intron structure, and the three RRMs and TEL characteristic motifs. The evolution of tel sequences in Poaceae strongly correlates with the known phylogenetic tree of this family. RT-PCR gene expression analyses show conserved tel expression in the shoot apex in all species, suggesting functional orthology between these genes. In addition, in situ hybridization experiments with specific antisense probes show tel transcript accumulation in all differentiating cells of the leaf, from the recruitment of leaf founder cells to leaf margins cells. Tel expression is not restricted to initiating leaves as it is also found in pro-vascular tissues, root meristems, and immature inflorescences. Therefore, these results suggest that TEL is not only associated with leaf initiation but more generally with cell differentiation in Poaceae.

PMID: 15837706 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]

Regulation of leaf initiation by the terminal ear 1 gene of maize.

Veit B, Briggs SP, Schmidt RJ, Yanofsky MF, Hake S.

Institute of Molecular Biosciences, Massey University, Palmerston North, New Zealand.

Higher plants elaborate much of their architecture post-embryonically through development initiated at the tips of shoots. During vegetative growth, leaf primordia arise at predictable sites to give characteristic leaf arrangements, or phyllotaxies. How these sites are determined is a long-standing question that bears on the nature of pattern-formation mechanisms in plants. Fate-mapping studies in several species indicate that each leaf primordium becomes organized from a group of 100-200 cells on the flank of the shoot apex. Although molecular studies indicate that the regulated expression of specific homeobox genes plays some part in this determination process, mechanisms that regulate the timing and position of leaf initiation are less well understood. Here we describe a gene from maize, terminal ear 1. Patterns of expression of this gene in the shoot and phenotypes of mutants indicate a role for terminal ear 1 in regulating leaf initiation. The tel gene product contains conserved RNA-binding motifs, indicating that it may function through an RNA-binding activity.

1: Plant Cell. 2006 Mar;18(3):612-25. Epub 2006 Feb 3.

Related Articles, Links

PLASTOCHRON2 regulates leaf initiation and maturation in rice.

Kawakatsu T, Itoh J, Miyoshi K, Kurata N, Alvarez N, Veit B, Nagato Y.

Graduate School of Agricultural and Life Sciences, University of Tokyo, Tokyo 113-8657, Japan.

In higher plants, leaves initiate in constant spatial and temporal patterns. Although the pattern of leaf initiation is a key element of plant shoot architecture, little is known about how the time interval between initiation events, termed plastochron, is regulated. Here, we present a detailed analysis of plastochron2 (pla2), a rice (Oryza sativa) mutant that exhibits shortened plastochron and precocious maturation of leaves during the vegetative phase and ectopic shoot formation during the reproductive phase. The corresponding PLA2 gene is revealed to be an orthologue of terminal ear1, a maize (Zea mays) gene that encodes a MEI2-like RNA binding protein. PLA2 is expressed predominantly in young leaf primordia. We show that PLA2 normally acts to retard the rate of leaf maturation but does so independently of PLA1, which encodes a member of the P450 family. Based on these analyses, we propose a model in which plastochron is determined by signals from immature leaves that act non-cell-autonomously in the shoot apical meristem to inhibit the initiation of new leaves.

Publication Types:

• Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

PMID: 16461585 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]

Interproscan:

SEQUENCE: AF047852_2_ORF1 CRC64: 6B015AF5D06C5877 LENGTH: 662 aa InterPro
IPR000504
Domain

Parent IPR012677 Children IPR003954 Found in IPR002343 IPR002344 IPR006509 IPR006515 IPR006529 IPR006532 IPR006535 IPR006536 IPR006546 IPR006548 IPR008111 IPR009145 IPR011368 IPR011400 Contains no entries GO terms Molecular Function: nucleic acid binding (GO:0003676)
InterPro
IPR007201
Domain

Parent no parent Children no children Found in no entries Contains no entries GO terms none InterPro
IPR012677
Domain

Parent no parent Children IPR000504 Found in IPR001014 IPR005120 IPR006931 IPR012678 IPR013025 Contains no entries GO terms Molecular Function: nucleotide binding (GO:0000166)
noIPR
unintegrated

Parent no parent Children no children Found in no entries Contains no entries GO terms none