Nuclear lamina organization is similar in metazoan and plants though the latter lack orthologs of lamins, the main components of the metazoan lamina. Current evidence suggests that Nuclear Matrix Constituent Proteins (NMCPs) are the lamin analogues in plants as these proteins share several key features: higher-order secondary structure and domain layout, subnuclear distribution, and involvement in the regulation of nuclear shape and size, as well as in higher-order chromatin organization. Previously, we studied the NMCP family in flowering plants (angiosperms), in which it comprises two phylogenetic groups: NMCP1 and NMCP2. At present, in silico information about NMCP proteins in embryophytes is relatively advanced, though very few proteins, most of them of the NMCP1 type, have been extensively studied in vivo. We previously characterized the NCMP1 protein in the monocot Allium cepa. Here, we report the key features of a second protein of this species NMCP2, which presents a conserved sequence and domain layout. Immunofluorescence and immunoelectronmicroscopy evidence co-localization of endogenous AcNMCP2 and AcNMCP1 in the lamina, while Western blotting and immunoconfocal microscopy reveal a similar pattern of expression and distribution of both NMCP proteins in different root tissues. Our results provide novel insight about endogenous NMCP2-type proteins and complete the characterization of the NMCP family in A. cepa, thus advancing the current understanding of these structural proteins constituting the plant lamina.
Keywords: Allium cepa NMCP2 and NMCP1 proteins; Bioinformatic analysis; Immunofluorescence and immunoelectronmicroscopy; Phylogenetic analysis; Plant lamina; Protein analysis.