Do the origin and evolution of plant cystatins and their target cysteine proteinases indicate a complex functional relationship?
Comparative genomic analyses have provided us valuable insights into the conservation and evolution of the cystatin inhibitory family and their putative targets, the cysteine proteinases from families C1A and C13. Functionality of both families of proteins in plants must be the result of a coevolutionary process that might have occurred during the evolution of basal and land plants leading to a complex functional relationship among them.
These data further establish a role of β-EP neurons in the hypothalamus for regulating physiological stress response and anxiety behavior and resemble a potential novel therapy for treating stress-related psychiatric disorders in prenatal alcohol-exposed children and those genetically predisposed to increased alcohol consumption.