Orthologs of Human-Disease-Associated Genes in Plants Are Involved in Regulating Leaf Senescence

Abstract

As eukaryotes, plants and animals have many commonalities on the genetic level, although they differ greatly in appearance and physiological habits. The primary goal of current plant research is to improve the crop yield and quality. However, plant research has a wider aim, exploiting the evolutionary conservatism similarities between plants and animals, and applying discoveries in the field of botany to promote zoological research that will ultimately serve human health, although very few studies have addressed this aspect. Here, we analyzed 35 human-disease-related gene orthologs in plants and characterized the genes in depth. Thirty-four homologous genes were found to be present in the herbaceous annual plant Arabidopsis thaliana and the woody perennial plant Populus trichocarpa, with most of the genes having more than two exons, including the ATM gene with 78 exons. More surprisingly, 27 (79.4%) of the 34 homologous genes in Arabidopsis were found to be senescence-associated genes (SAGs), further suggesting a close relationship between human diseases and cellular senescence. Protein–protein interaction network analysis revealed that the 34 genes formed two main subnetworks, and genes in the first subnetwork interacted with 15 SAGs. In conclusion, our results show that most of the 34 homologs of human-disease-associated genes in plants are involved in the leaf senescence process, suggesting that leaf senescence may offer a means to study the pathogenesis of human diseases and to screen drugs for the treat of diseases.