Abstract The ATP-binding cassette (ABC) gene family plays a crucial role in plants by mediating the transport of various molecules, contributing to development, stress responses, and secondary metabolism. Here, 159077ABC genes were identified from 1108 plant species. Comparative analysis revealed that higher plants had more ABC genes compared to algae plants. The ABCG1, ABCG4, and ABCG8 subfamilies originated in land plants and subsequently underwent distinct evolutionary pathways. Motif 1 and motif 9 demonstrated a conserved high-frequency pattern across different lineages. The expansion of ABC family mainly occurred through dispersed and whole-genome duplication in higher angiosperms, and full-length transposons may mediate the neofunctionalization of these genes. The pan-ABC family analysis of 12 tomato accessions revealed more relaxed selective pressures in dispensable ABC genes. The ABC genes of Arabidopsis thaliana exhibited stronger responsiveness and connectivity degree under salt stress. To facilitate further research, we established the PlantABC database (http://biodb.com.cn/PlantABC/index.html), which contains comprehensive genomic and evolutionary information about plant ABC genes. This study provides valuable perspective and resources for advancing researches on the evolution and functions of plant ABC genes.
Song et al. (Mon,) studied this question.