Serine/arginine-rich (SR) proteins are widely found in higher eukaryotes, including metazoans and plants. They form a major family of essential splicing factors that function in both constitutive splicing (CS) and alternative splicing (AS). Some SR proteins can also shuttle between the nucleus and cytoplasm and have roles beyond splicing. The activities of SR proteins are required for many living organisms to maintain normal growth and development. Although SR genes have been identified in numerous plants, they are less studied than those found in animals. The results of existing research suggest that plant SR proteins share many similar properties with their animal counterparts. However, plants generally have a higher number of SR proteins that display largely redundant functions under normal conditions but participate in specific stress responses. Moreover, many animal and plant SR genes are alternatively spliced and can be regulated by themselves or other SR proteins. These AS events, often coupled to nonsense-mediated decay (NMD), enable a mechanism for protein amount control under different conditions but sometimes also lead to translated protein isoforms with different functions. Here, we summarize the key findings of SR proteins in animals and plants and compare the essential characteristics of SR studies in these two research areas.

富含丝氨酸/精氨酸（SR）的蛋白质广泛存在于高级真核生物中，包括后生动物和植物。它们构成了主要的剪接因子家族，它们在本构剪接（CS）和替代剪接（AS）中均起作用。一些SR蛋白还可以在细胞核和细胞质之间穿梭，并具有超出剪接的作用。SR蛋白的活性是许多活生物体维持正常生长发育所必需的。虽然SR基因已经在许多植物中被鉴定出来，但是它们在动物中的研究却很少。现有研究结果表明，植物SR蛋白与其动物对应物具有许多相似的特性。然而，植物通常具有更高数量的SR蛋白，这些蛋白在正常条件下显示出大量的冗余功能，但参与特定的胁迫反应。而且，许多动植物SR基因被剪接并可以由它们自己或其他SR蛋白调节。这些AS事件通常与无意义介导的衰变（NMD）结合，为在不同条件下控制蛋白质量提供了一种机制，但有时还会导致翻译后的具有不同功能的蛋白质同工型。在这里，我们总结了动植物中SR蛋白的主要发现，并比较了这两个研究领域中SR研究的基本特征。