Data on cell cycle research in plants indicate that the majority of the fundamental regulators are conserved with other eukaryotes, but the controlling mechanisms imposed on them, and their integration into growth and development is unique to plants. To date, most studies on cell division have been conducted in dicot plants. However, monocot plants have distinct developmental strategies that will affect the regulation of cell division at the meristems. In order to advance our understanding how cell division is integrated with the basic mechanisms controlling cell growth and development in monocots, we took advantage of the sugarcane EST Project (Sucest) to carry an exhaustive data mining to identify components of the cell cycle machinery. Results obtained include the description of distinct classes of cyclin-dependent kinases (CDKs); A, B, D, and H-type cyclins; CDK-interacting proteins, CDK-inhibitory and activating kinases, pRB and E2F transcription factors. Most sugarcane cell cycle genes seem to be member of multigene families. Like in dicot plants, CDKa transcription is not restricted to tissues with elevated meristematic activity, but the vast majority of CDKb-related ESTs are found in regions of high proliferation rates. Expression of CKI genes is far more abundant in regions of less cell division, notably in lateral buds. Shared expression patterns for a group of clusters was unraveled by transcriptional profiling, and we suggest that similar approaches could be used to identify genes that are part of the same regulatory network.
