Figure 1

Phylogenetic relations and characteristics of Medicago truncatula AGOs. (A) Evolutionary relationship of M. truncatula and A. thaliana (At) AGOs. The complete protein sequences were aligned using the T-Coffee software [46–48] and a Neighbour joining tree was constructed using the MEGA4.0 software [49]. (B) Characterization of the MtAGO proteins domains. The protein domains were obtained using the Conserved Domains Database (CDD) database of NCBI. The Argonaute protein domains DUF1785 (purple), PAZ (dark-blue), MID (orange) and PIWI (black) are shown. (C) The catalytic center of MtAGOs was obtained from the alignment of the PIWI domains, corresponding to the positions of the aspartate, aspartate and histidine (DDH) motif and the Argonaute 1 histidine at position 800 (H800). D, aspartate, H, histidine, S, serine, A, alanine, P, proline, R, arginine. Figure B to scale.