BACKGROUND: Three types of molecular motors play an important role in the organization, dynamics and transport processes associated with the cytoskeleton. The @entity50355 family of molecular motors move cargo on actin filaments, whereas kinesin and dynein motors move cargo along microtubules. These motors have been highly characterized in non-plant systems and information is becoming available about plant motors. The actin cytoskeleton in plants has been shown to be involved in processes such as transportation, signaling, cell division, cytoplasmic streaming and morphogenesis. The role of @entity50355 in these processes has been established in a few cases but many questions remain to be answered about the number, types and roles of myosins in plants. RESULTS: Using the motor domain of an @entity958 @entity50355 we identified 17 @entity50355 sequences in the @entity958 genome. Phylogenetic analysis of the @entity958 myosins with non-plant and plant myosins revealed that all the @entity958 myosins and other plant myosins fall into two groups - class VIII and class XI. These groups contain exclusively plant or @entity20383 with no @entity364 . Exon/intron data suggest that the myosins are highly conserved and that some may be a result of gene duplication. CONCLUSIONS: Plant myosins are unlike myosins from any other organisms except algae. As a percentage of the total gene number, the number of myosins is small overall in @entity958 compared with the other sequenced eukaryotic genomes. There are, however, a large number of class XI myosins. The function of each @entity50355 has yet to be determined.

Analysis of the myosins encoded in the recently completed XXXX genome sequence.

@entity958 :: ('3702', 'Species') :: ['Arabidopsis'] @entity20383 :: ('MESH:C564253', 'Disease') :: ['algal myosins'] @entity364 :: ('MESH:D009181', 'Disease') :: ['animal or fungal myosins'] @entity50355 :: ('821534(Tax:3702)', 'Gene') :: ['myosin']
@entity958 :: (3702,Species) :: ['Arabidopsis thaliana']
