猪GATA-3基因的电子克隆、表达及其分子进化分析

基于猪的表达标签数据库电子克隆了猪的GATA-3基因,并通过RT-PCR验证了猪的GATA-3基因的核苷酸序列。测序结果显示猪的GATA-3基因的核苷酸长度由1,760bp个碱基组成,包括1,335bp的开放阅读框,编码产物为由444个氨基酸残基组成的多肽。通过半定量RT-PCR检测了GATA-3 mRNA在大白猪的各个组织的表达情况。GATA转录因子家族通常有2个Ⅳ型锌指蛋白结构,根据Ⅳ型锌指蛋白结构序列,使用Mega3．1软件构建了分子进化关系树。系统发育分析表明所有的脊椎动物的GATA转录因子都起源于共同的祖先,拓扑结构也表明进化过程中有多种事件发生,包括基因复制和Ⅳ型锌指蛋白结构域重组,根据所得数据有利于进一步了解GATA家族基因趋同和趋异的进化途径。     

Evolutionary history of the vertebrate mitogen activated protein kinases family

Background

The mitogen activated protein kinases (MAPK) family pathway is implicated in diverse cellular processes and pathways essential to most organisms. Its evolution is conserved throughout the eukaryotic kingdoms. However, the detailed evolutionary history of the vertebrate MAPK family is largely unclear.

Methodology/Principal Findings

The MAPK family members were collected from literatures or by searching the genomes of several vertebrates and invertebrates with the known MAPK sequences as queries. We found that vertebrates had significantly more MAPK family members than invertebrates, and the vertebrate MAPK family originated from 3 progenitors, suggesting that a burst of gene duplication events had occurred after the divergence of vertebrates from invertebrates. Conservation of evolutionary synteny was observed in the vertebrate MAPK subfamilies 4, 6, 7, and 11 to 14. Based on synteny and phylogenetic relationships, MAPK12 appeared to have arisen from a tandem duplication of MAPK11 and the MAPK13-MAPK14 gene unit was from a segmental duplication of the MAPK11-MAPK12 gene unit. Adaptive evolution analyses reveal that purifying selection drove the evolution of MAPK family, implying strong functional constraints of MAPK genes. Intriguingly, however, intron losses were specifically observed in the MAPK4 and MAPK7 genes, but not in their flanking genes, during the evolution from teleosts to amphibians and mammals. The specific occurrence of intron losses in the MAPK4 and MAPK7 subfamilies might be associated with adaptive evolution of the vertebrates by enhancing the gene expression level of both MAPK genes.

Conclusions/Significance

These results provide valuable insight into the evolutionary history of the vertebrate MAPK family.     

哺乳动物锌指蛋白家族中KRAB功能域的进化

KRAB锌指基因是哺乳动物中最大的转录调控因子家族,它的多数成员在基因组上成簇分布,具有五种不同的亚家族,在功能行使上承担着不同的作用。本文通过对人类、黑猩猩、小鼠、大鼠和狗五种哺乳动物全蛋白质组序列及mRNA组织表达谱分析,验证了C2H2锌指结构在单个KRAB蛋白质中出现的数目多于一般锌指蛋白质;KRAB功能域在各物种中分布显著不同且与分化时间不成正比,这表明KRAB相关功能域多样性在灵长类进化过程中潜在的适应性进化。同时,提出KRAB亚家族进化的路线：即KRAB—Aa为起始家族,Ba由Aa直接演变形成,而Ca,blonga和XRCC-Z种亚型可能经过Ba或直接从Aa演变形成;此外,锌指结构在单个蛋白质中出现个数伴随KRAB功能域自身的进化路线逐渐递增,反映了KRAB功能域在形成新转录调控因子方面的积极作用。     

烟草C2H2锌指蛋白转录因子家族成员的鉴定与表达分析

C2H2锌指蛋白转录因子家族在真核生物中具有重要的生物学功能,广泛参与植物叶的发生、花器官的调控、侧枝的形成及逆境胁迫等生命过程。植物C2H2锌指蛋白不仅结合DNA和RNA,而且与蛋白质之间相互作用。本研究利用普通烟草(Nicotiana tabacum)基因组数据库,运用Blastp比对,结合Pfam和SMART分析,鉴定了118条普通烟草C2H2锌指蛋白家族成员;对烟草C2H2锌指蛋白家族进行了进化树分析、结构域分析、物理化学性质分析、染色体定位、基因结构分析、三维结构分析及组织表达分析等。结果表明：不同成员的氨基酸长度差异较大;系统进化及结构域分析显示,所有C2H2家族成员可以被分为5个亚家族,同一亚家族成员之间在结构域和理化性质上呈现较高一致性;每个成员都含有C2H2结构域,在数量上存在较大差异;将所有基因家族成员定位在22条染色体上;组织表达分析表明,每个C2H2亚家族都有成员在不同组织中表达,在叶及根中有些基因的表达量较高。     

毛果杨GATA基因家族全基因组水平鉴定及表达分析

GATA转录因子基因家族在植物生长发育、细胞分化以及响应环境变化中具有重要作用。然而,目前在木本植物中尚无该基因家族全基因组水平的分析报导。本项研究从基因组水平对毛果杨GATA家族成员的数量、基因结构、染色体定位、系统进化、编码蛋白的理化特征和保守基序等信息进行了系统分析,结果表明,毛果杨GATA家族包含39个基因,共分布于15条染色体上,其中5号染色体上含有6个基因,9号、13号和19号染色体含有基因数量为1,其余染色上无基因分布。该家族各基因的结构与编码蛋白的基本特性均存在一定异性,可分成4个亚族。qRT-PCR研究表明,GATA家族各基因在不同发育阶段的茎部表达量存在明显差异,且盐胁迫对各基因的表达特性影响显著。以上结果表明,毛果杨GATA家族基因在复制后,基因的结构与功能产生了明显分化,其中部分基因在毛果杨次生生长与盐胁迫响应中可能具有重要作用。本项研究为全面解析毛果杨GATA家族各成员在其生长发育与盐胁迫响应中的生物学功能奠定了基础。     

Molecular Evolution and Structural Features of IRAK Family Members

The interleukin-1 receptor-associated kinase (IRAK) family comprises critical signaling mediators of the TLR/IL-1R signaling pathways. IRAKs are Ser/Thr kinases. There are 4 members in the vertebrate genome (IRAK1, IRAK2, IRAKM, and IRAK4) and an IRAK homolog, Pelle, in insects. IRAK family members are highly conserved in vertebrates, but the evolutionary relationship between IRAKs in vertebrates and insects is not clear. To investigate the evolutionary history and functional divergence of IRAK members, we performed extensive bioinformatics analysis. The phylogenetic relationship between IRAK sequences suggests that gene duplication events occurred in the evolutionary lineage, leading to early vertebrates. A comparative phylogenetic analysis with insect homologs of IRAKs suggests that the Tube protein is a homolog of IRAK4, unlike the anticipated protein, Pelle. Furthermore, the analysis supports that an IRAK4-like kinase is an ancestral protein in the metazoan lineage of the IRAK family. Through functional analysis, several potentially diverged sites were identified in the common death domain and kinase domain. These sites have been constrained during evolution by strong purifying selection, suggesting their functional importance within IRAKs. In summary, our study highlighted the molecular evolution of the IRAK family, predicted the amino acids that contributed to functional divergence, and identified structural variations among the IRAK paralogs that may provide a starting point for further experimental investigations.     

Duplication and inversion history of a tandemly repeated genes family.

Given a phylogenetic tree for a family of tandemly repeated genes and their signed order on the chromosome, we aim to find the minimum number of inversions compatible with an evolutionary history of this family. This is the first attempt to account for inversions in an evolutionary model of tandemly repeated genes. We present a branch-and-bound algorithm that finds the exact solution, and a polynomial-time heuristic based on the breakpoint distance. We show, on simulated data, that those algorithms can be used to improve phylogenetic inference of tandemly repeated gene families. An application on a published phylogeny of KRAB zinc finger genes is presented.     

Complex history of a chromosomal paralogy region: insights from amphioxus aromatic amino acid hydroxylase genes and insulin-related genes

Aromatic amino acid hydroxylase (AAAH) genes and insulin-like genes form part of an extensive paralogy region shared by human chromosomes 11 and 12, thought to have arisen by tetraploidy in early vertebrate evolution. Cloning of a complementary DNA (cDNA) for an amphioxus (Branchiostoma floridae) hydroxylase gene (AmphiPAH) allowed us to investigate the ancestry of the human chromosome 11/12 paralogy region. Molecular phylogenetic evidence reveals that AmphiPAH is orthologous to vertebrate phenylalanine (PAH) genes; the implication is that all three vertebrate AAAH genes arose early in metazoan evolution, predating vertebrates. In contrast, our phylogenetic analysis of amphioxus and vertebrate insulin-related gene sequences is consistent with duplication of these genes during early chordate ancestry. The conclusion is that two tightly linked gene families on human chromosomes 11 and 12 were not duplicated coincidentally. We rationalize this paradox by invoking gene loss in the AAAH gene family and conclude that paralogous genes shared by paralogous chromosomes need not have identical evolutionary histories.     

Molecular evolution of the ankyrin gene family

Ankyrins are membrane adaptor molecules that play important roles in coupling integral membrane proteins to the spectrin-based cytoskeleton network. Human mutations of ankyrin genes lead to severe genetic diseases such as fatal cardiac arrhythmias and hereditary spherocytosis. To elucidate the evolutionary history of ankyrins, we have identified novel ankyrin sequences in insect, fish, frog, chicken, dog, and chimpanzee genomes and explored the phylogenetic relationships of the ankyrin gene family. Our data demonstrate that duplication of ankyrin genes occurred at two different stages. The first duplication resulted from an independent evolution event specific in Arthropoda after its divergence from Chordata. Following the separation from Urochordata, expansion of ankyrins in vertebrates involved ancestral genome duplications. We did not find evidence of coordinated arrangements of gene families of ankyrin-associated membrane proteins on paralogous chromosomes. In addition, evolution of the 24 ANK-repeats strikingly correlated with the exon boundary sites of ankyrin genes, which might have occurred before its duplication in vertebrates. Such correlation is speculated to bring functional diversity and complexity. Moreover, based on the phylogenetic analysis of the ANK-repeat domain, we put forward a novel model for the putative primordial ankyrin that contains the fourth six-ANK-repeat subdomain and the spectrin-binding domain. These findings will provide guides for future studies concerning structure, function, evolutionary origins of ankyrins, and possibly other cytoskeletal proteins.     

海七鳃鳗(Petromyzon marinus)anoctaimin-1蛋白的生物信息学分析

七鳃鳗是现存的最原始的无颌类脊椎动物之一,也是连接无脊椎动物与脊椎动物的重要环节,对生物的起源与进化有很高的研究价值。anoctamin-1蛋白(ANO1)是一种重要的跨膜蛋白,与细胞内阴离子的跨膜运输相关。以海七鳃鳗为例,利用不同软件对海七鳃鳗ANO1蛋白的理化性质、结构域、蛋白结构特征、物种进化保守性以及系统进化关系进行生物信息学分析表明:海七鳃鳗ANO1的开放阅读框为2 373 bp,编码791个氨基酸,属于anoctamin蛋白家族,具有7个跨膜区;二级结构含有无规则卷曲、α螺旋和β折叠。将海七鳃鳗与其他物种的ANO1氨基酸序列进行同源比对,并构建系统进化树,以确认海七鳃鳗ANO1基因的保守性和进化地位。对ANO1基因及蛋白的生物信息学分析为ANO1基因及蛋白的相关研究提供了重要的信息基础。