Arabidopsis transcription factors: Genome-wide comparative analysis among eukaryotes

The completion of the Arabidopsis thaliana genome sequence allows a compara tive analysis of transcriptional regulators across the three eukaryotic kin gdoms. Arabidopsis dedicates over 5% of its genome to code for more than 15 00 transcription factors, about 45% of which are from families specific to plants. Arabidopsis transcription factors that belong to families common to all eukaryotes do not share significant similarity with those of the other kingdoms beyond the conserved DNA binding domains, many of which have been arranged in combinations specific to each lineage. The genome-wide compari son reveals the evolutionary generation of diversity in the regulation of t ranscription.