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1.
Circular permutations of genes during molecular evolution often are regarded as elusive, although a simple model can explain these rearrangements. The model assumes that first a gene duplication of the precursor gene occurs in such a way that both genes become fused in frame, leading to a tandem protein. After generation of a new start codon within the 5′ part of the tandem gene and a stop at an equivalent position in the 3′ part of the gene, a protein is encoded that represents a perfect circular permutation of the precursor gene product. The model is illustrated here by the molecular evolution of adenine-N6 DNA methyltransferases. β- and γ-type enzymes of this family can be interconverted by a single circular permutation event. Interestingly, tandem proteins, proposed as evolutionary intermediates during circular permutation, can be directly observed in the case of adenine methyltransferases, because some enzymes belonging to type IIS, like the FokI methyltransferase, are built up by two fused enzymes, both of which are active independently of each other. The mechanism for circular permutation illustrated here is very easy and applicable to every protein. Thus, circular permutation can be regarded as a normal process in molecular evolution and a changed order of conserved amino acid motifs should not be interpreted to argue against divergent evolution. Received: 17 November 1998 / Accepted: 19 February 1999  相似文献   

2.
Members of the superfamily of protein tyrosine phosphatases (PTPs) share the presence of an evolutionarily conserved PTP catalytic domain. Among them, the dual-specificity phosphatases (DSPs) constitute a diverse group of enzymes in terms of substrate specificity, including nonprotein substrates. In recent years, an increasing number of novel DSPs, whose functions and biological substrates are not well defined, have been discovered in a variety of organisms. In this study, we define the structural and functional properties of evolutionarily related atypical DSPs from different phyla. Sets of conserved motifs were defined that (i) uniquely segregated mammalian atypical DSPs from closely related enzymes and (ii) exclusively characterised a novel family of atypical DSPs present in plants, fungi, and kinetoplastids [plant and fungi atypical (PFA)-DSPs]; despite having different sequence “fingerprints,” the PTP tertiary structure of PFA-DSPs is conserved. Analysis of the catalytic properties of PFA-DSPs suggests the existence of a unique substrate specificity for these enzymes. Our findings predict characteristic functional motifs for the diverse members of the DSP families of PTPs and provide insights into the functional properties of DSPs of unknown function.  相似文献   

3.
Many protein classification systems capture homologous relationships by grouping domains into families and superfamilies on the basis of sequence similarity. Superfamilies with similar 3D structures are further grouped into folds. In the absence of discernable sequence similarity, these structural similarities were long thought to have originated independently, by convergent evolution. However, the growth of databases and advances in sequence comparison methods have led to the discovery of many distant evolutionary relationships that transcend the boundaries of superfamilies and folds. To investigate the contributions of convergent versus divergent evolution in the origin of protein folds, we clustered representative domains of known structure by their sequence similarity, treating them as point masses in a virtual 2D space which attract or repel each other depending on their pairwise sequence similarities. As expected, families in the same superfamily form tight clusters. But often, superfamilies of the same fold are linked with each other, suggesting that the entire fold evolved from an ancient prototype. Strikingly, some links connect superfamilies with different folds. They arise from modular peptide fragments of between 20 and 40 residues that co‐occur in the connected folds in disparate structural contexts. These may be descendants of an ancestral pool of peptide modules that evolved as cofactors in the RNA world and from which the first folded proteins arose by amplification and recombination. Our galaxy of folds summarizes, in a single image, most known and many yet undescribed homologous relationships between protein superfamilies, providing new insights into the evolution of protein domains.  相似文献   

4.
We present a systematic study of the clustering of genes within the human genome based on homology inferred from both sequence and structural similarity. The 3D-Genomics automated proteome annotation pipeline () was utilised to infer homology for each protein domain in the genome, for the 26 superfamilies most highly represented in the Structural Classification Of Proteins (SCOP) database. This approach enabled us to identify homologues that could not be detected by sequence-based methods alone. For each superfamily, we investigated the distribution, both within and among chromosomes, of genes encoding at least one domain within the superfamily. The results indicate a diversity of clustering behaviours: some superfamilies showed no evidence of any clustering, and others displayed significant clustering either within or among chromosomes, or both. Removal of tandem repeats reduced the levels of clustering observed, but some superfamilies still displayed highly significant clustering. Thus, our study suggests that either the process of gene duplication, or the evolution of the resulting clusters, differs between structural superfamilies.  相似文献   

5.
A central challenge of chemical biology is the development of small-molecule tools for controlling protein activity in a target-specific manner. Such tools are particularly useful if they can be systematically applied to the members of large protein families. Here we report that protein tyrosine phosphatases can be systematically 'sensitized' to target-specific inhibition by a cell-permeable small molecule, Fluorescein Arsenical Hairpin Binder (FlAsH), which does not inhibit any wild-type PTP investigated to date. We show that insertion of a FlAsH-binding peptide at a conserved position in the PTP catalytic-domain's WPD loop confers novel FlAsH sensitivity upon divergent PTPs. The position of the sensitizing insertion is readily identifiable from primary-sequence alignments, and we have generated FlAsH-sensitive mutants for seven different classical PTPs from six distinct subfamilies of receptor and non-receptor PTPs, including one phosphatase (PTP-PEST) whose three-dimensional catalytic-domain structure is not known. In all cases, FlAsH-mediated PTP inhibition was target specific and potent, with inhibition constants for the seven sensitized PTPs ranging from 17 to 370 nM. Our results suggest that a substantial fraction of the PTP superfamily will be likewise sensitizable to allele-specific inhibition; FlAsH-based PTP targeting thus potentially provides a rapid, general means for selectively targeting PTP activity in cell-culture- or model-organism-based signaling studies.  相似文献   

6.
BACKGROUND AND AIMS: Expansins are plant cell wall loosening proteins important in a variety of physiological processes. They comprise a large superfamily of genes consisting of four families (EXPA, EXPB, EXLA and EXLB) whose evolutionary relationships have been well characterized in angiosperms, but not in basal land plants. This work attempts to connect the expansin superfamily in bryophytes with the evolutionary history of this superfamily in angiosperms. METHODS: The expansin superfamily in Physcomitrella patens has been assembled from the Physcomitrella sequencing project data generated by the Joint Genome Institute and compared with angiosperm expansin superfamilies. Phylogenetic, motif, intron and distance analyses have been used for this purpose. KEY RESULTS: A gene superfamily is revealed that contains similar numbers of genes as found in arabidopsis, but lacking EXLA or EXLB genes. This similarity in gene numbers exists even though expansin evolution in Physcomitrella diverged from the angiosperm line approx. 400 million years ago. Phylogenetic analyses suggest that there were a minimum of two EXPA genes and one EXPB gene in the last common ancestor of angiosperms and Physcomitrella. Motif analysis seems to suggest that EXPA protein function is similar in bryophytes and angiosperms, but that EXPB function may be altered. CONCLUSIONS: The EXPA genes of Physcomitrella are likely to have maintained the same biochemical function as angiosperm expansins despite their independent evolutionary history. Changes seen at normally conserved residues in the Physcomitrella EXPB family suggest a possible change in function as one mode of evolution in this family.  相似文献   

7.
Polyploidy events have played an important role in the evolution of angiosperm genomes. Here, we demonstrate how genomic histories can increase phylogenetic resolution in a gene family, specifically the expansin superfamily of cell wall proteins. There are 36 expansins in Arabidopsis and 58 in rice. Traditional sequence-based phylogenetic trees yield poor resolution below the family level. To improve upon these analyses, we searched for gene colinearity (microsynteny) between Arabidopsis and rice genomic segments containing expansin genes. Multiple rounds of genome duplication and extensive gene loss have obscured synteny. However, by simultaneously aligning groups of up to 10 potentially orthologous segments from the two species, we traced the history of 49 out of 63 expansin-containing segments back to the ancestor of monocots and eudicots. Our results indicate that this ancestor had 15-17 expansin genes, each ancestral to an extant clade. Some clades have strikingly different growth patterns in the rice and Arabidopsis lineages, with more than half of all rice expansins arising from two ancestral genes. Segmental duplications, most of them part of polyploidy events, account for 12 out of 21 new expansin genes in Arabidopsis and 16 out of 44 in rice. Tandem duplications explain most of the rest. We were also able to estimate a minimum of 28 gene deaths in the Arabidopsis lineage and nine in rice. This analysis greatly clarifies expansin evolution since the last common ancestor of monocots and eudicots and the method should be broadly applicable to many other gene families.  相似文献   

8.
Detailed analysis of protein tyrosine phosphatase (PTP) expression in mouse mammary gland and mammary epithelial cells using a set of degenerate primers corresponding to the PTP core domain sequence revealed the presence of 16 different receptor-type and intracellular PTPs. Northern blot and RT-PCR analyses revealed that some PTPs were up-regulated during gestation, suggesting that these enzymes are involved in development of mammary gland. However, expression of most PTPs dramatically decreased during lactation, whereas the beta-casein gene expression was increased and remained at a high level. At the involution stage after weaning, most PTPs were up-regulated and their expression returned almost to the virgin level. Such up-regulation was also induced by forced weaning in lactating mother mice. These results suggest the possible contribution of PTPs to the development, involution, and remodeling of mammary gland and their possible inhibitory action on maintaining high expression of milk genes during lactation.  相似文献   

9.
Vertebrates' plasmatic apolipoproteins and a few number of lipases in their metabolism present sequence homologies. They are grouped in genes families. The four exons apolipoproteins gene family includes nine human genes: the divergence rate of their sequences allows to place the first ancestral gene very high in the phylogenetic tree of the evolution. However, a more recent duplication of apolipoprotein C-I gene dating from 40 millions years, may be a phylogenetic marker for the radiation of Monkeys. Pancreatic lipase and isoforms, lipoprotein-lipase and hepatic triacylglycerol-lipase form by their homologies a "superfamily" of genes, which also includes yolk proteins of Dipterians eggs. Sequence homologies of PL, LPL and HL are analysed and compared with multiple alignments of amino-acids and nucleotides on spreadsheets. From these comparisons we may characterize four classes of phylogenetic markers: 1) repetitive DNA sequence (Alu, B1, PRE-1) appeared during Mammals evolution, 2) short insertions or deletions (within N-terminal domain) and a gene conversion in guinea-pig lineage, 3) a progressive reduction of intron number during the lipases evolution, 4) several duplications of genes which have produced the five genes of this superfamily currently known in the human genome.  相似文献   

10.
11.
It is now well established that the members of the PTP (protein tyrosine phosphatase) superfamily play critical roles in fundamental biological processes. Although there has been much progress in defining the function of PTPs, the task of identifying substrates for these enzymes still presents a challenge. Many PTPs have yet to have their physiological substrates identified. The focus of this review will be on the current state of knowledge of PTP substrates and the approaches used to identify them. We propose experimental criteria that should be satisfied in order to rigorously assign PTP substrates as bona fide. Finally, the progress that has been made in defining the biological roles of PTPs through the identification of their substrates will be discussed.  相似文献   

12.
During evolution, some homologs proteins appear with different connectivity between secondary structures (different topology) but conserving the tridimensional arrangement of them (same architecture). These events can produce two types of arrangements; circular permutation or non-cyclic permutations. The first one results in the N and C terminus transferring to a different position on a protein sequence while the second refers to a more complex arrangement of the structural elements. In ribokinase superfamily, two different topologies can be identified, which are related to each other as a non-cyclic permutation occurred during the evolution. Interestingly, this change in topology is correlated with the nucleotide specificity of its members. Thereby, the connectivity of the secondary elements allows us to distinguish an ATP-dependent and an ADP-dependent topology.Here we address the impact of introducing the topology of a homologous ATP-dependent kinase in an ADP-dependent kinase (Thermococcus litoralis glucokinase) in the structure, nucleotide specificity, and substrate binding order of the engineered enzyme. Structural evidence demonstrates that rewiring the topology of TlGK leads to an active and soluble enzyme without modifications on its three-dimensional architecture. The permuted enzyme (PerGK) retains the nucleotide preference of the parent TlGK enzyme but shows a change in the substrate binding order. Our results illustrate how the rearrangement of the protein folding topology during the evolution of the ribokinase superfamily enzymes may have dictated the substrate-binding order in homologous enzymes of this superfamily.  相似文献   

13.
Protein-tyrosine phosphatases (PTPs) have an important role in cell survival, differentiation, proliferation, migration and other cellular processes in conjunction with protein-tyrosine kinases. Still relatively little is known about the function of PTPs in vivo. We set out to systematically identify all classical PTPs in the zebrafish genome and characterize their expression patterns during zebrafish development. We identified 48 PTP genes in the zebrafish genome by BLASTing of human PTP sequences. We verified all in silico hits by sequencing and established the spatio-temporal expression patterns of all PTPs by in situ hybridization of zebrafish embryos at six distinct developmental stages. The zebrafish genome encodes 48 PTP genes. 14 human orthologs are duplicated in the zebrafish genome and 3 human orthologs were not identified. Based on sequence conservation, most zebrafish orthologues of human PTP genes were readily assigned. Interestingly, the duplicated form of ptpn23, a catalytically inactive PTP, has lost its PTP domain, indicating that PTP activity is not required for its function, or that ptpn23b has lost its PTP domain in the course of evolution. All 48 PTPs are expressed in zebrafish embryos. Most PTPs are maternally provided and are broadly expressed early on. PTP expression becomes progressively restricted during development. Interestingly, some duplicated genes retained their expression pattern, whereas expression of other duplicated genes was distinct or even mutually exclusive, suggesting that the function of the latter PTPs has diverged. In conclusion, we have identified all members of the family of classical PTPs in the zebrafish genome and established their expression patterns. This is the first time the expression patterns of all members of the large family of PTP genes have been established in a vertebrate. Our results provide the first step towards elucidation of the function of the family of classical PTPs.  相似文献   

14.
Three dual-specific phosphatases [DSPs], IphP, VHR, and Cdc14, and three protein-tyrosine phosphatases [PTPs], PTP-1B, PTP-H1, and Tc-PTPa, were challenged with a set of low molecular weight phosphoesters to probe the factors underlying the distinct substrate specificities displayed by these two mechanistically homologous families of protein phosphatases. It was observed that beta-naphthyl phosphate represented an excellent general substrate for both PTPs and DSPs. While DSPs tended to hydrolyze alpha-naphthyl phosphate at rates comparable to that of the beta-isomer, the PTPs PTP-1B and Tc-PTPa did not. PTP-H1, however, displayed high alpha-naphthyl phosphatase activity. Intriguingly, PTP-H1 also displayed much higher protein-serine phosphatase activity in vitro, 0.2-0.3% that toward equivalent tyrosine phosphorylated proteins, than did PTP-1B or Tc-PTPa. The latter two PTPs discriminated between the serine- and tyrosine-phosphorylated forms of two test proteins by factors of >/=10(4)-10(6). While free phosphoserine represented an extremely poor substrate for all of the DSPs examined, the addition of a hydrophobic "handle" to form N-(cyclohexanecarboxyl)-O-phospho-l-serine produced a compound that was hydrolyzed by IphP with high efficiency, i.e., at a rate comparable to that of free phosphotyrosine or p-nitrophenyl phosphate. VHR also hydrolyzed N-(cyclohexanecarboxyl)-O-phospho-l-serine (1 mM) at a rate approximately one-tenth that of beta-naphthyl phosphate. None of the PTPs tested exhibited significant activity against this compound. However, N-(cyclohexanecarboxyl)-O-phospho-l-serine did not prove to be a universal substrate for DSPs as Cdc14 displayed little propensity to hydrolyze it.  相似文献   

15.
The available genomic sequences of five closely related hemiascomycetous yeast species (Kluyveromyces lactis, Kluyveromyces waltii, Candida glabrata, Ashbya (Eremothecium) gossypii with Saccharomyces cerevisiae as a reference) were analysed to identify multidrug resistance (MDR) transport proteins belonging to the ATP-binding cassette (ABC) and major facilitator superfamilies (MFS), respectively. The phylogenetic trees clearly demonstrate that a similar set of gene (sub)families already existed in the common ancestor of all five fungal species studied. However, striking differences exist between the two superfamilies with respect to the evolution of the various subfamilies. Within the ABC superfamily all six half-size transporters with six transmembrane-spanning domains (TMs) and most full-size transporters with 12 TMs have one and only one gene per genome. An exception is the PDR family, in which gene duplications and deletions have occurred independently in individual genomes. Among the MFS transporters, the DHA2 family (TC 2.A.1.3) is more variable between species than the DHA1 family (TC 2.A.1.2). Conserved gene order relationships allow to trace the evolution of most (sub)families, for which the Kluyveromyces lactis genome can serve as an optimal scaffold. Cross-species sequence alignment of orthologous upstream gene sequences led to the identification of conserved sequence motifs ("phylogenetic footprints"). Almost half of them match known sequence motifs for the MDR regulators described in S. cerevisiae. The biological significance of those and of the novel predicted motifs awaits to be confirmed experimentally.  相似文献   

16.
Prolamin and resistance gene families are important in wheat food use and in defense against pathogen attacks, respectively. To better understand the evolution of these multi‐gene families, the DNA sequence of a 2.8‐Mb genomic region, representing an 8.8 cM genetic interval and harboring multiple prolamin and resistance‐like gene families, was analyzed in the diploid grass Aegilops tauschii, the D‐genome donor of bread wheat. Comparison with orthologous regions from rice, Brachypodium, and sorghum showed that the Ae. tauschii region has undergone dramatic changes; it has acquired more than 80 non‐syntenic genes and only 13 ancestral genes are shared among these grass species. These non‐syntenic genes, including prolamin and resistance‐like genes, originated from various genomic regions and likely moved to their present locations via sequence evolution processes involving gene duplication and translocation. Local duplication of non‐syntenic genes contributed significantly to the expansion of gene families. Our analysis indicates that the insertion of prolamin‐related genes occurred prior to the separation of the Brachypodieae and Triticeae lineages. Unlike in Brachypodium, inserted prolamin genes have rapidly evolved and expanded to encode different classes of major seed storage proteins in Triticeae species. Phylogenetic analyses also showed that the multiple insertions of resistance‐like genes and subsequent differential expansion of each R gene family. The high frequency of non‐syntenic genes and rapid local gene evolution correlate with the high recombination rate in the 2.8‐Mb region with nine‐fold higher than the genome‐wide average. Our results demonstrate complex evolutionary dynamics in this agronomically important region of Triticeae species.  相似文献   

17.
Reversible protein phosphorylation is critically important in the modulation of a wide variety of cellular functions. Several families of protein phosphatases remove phosphate groups placed on key cellular proteins by protein kinases. The complete genomic sequence of the model plant Arabidopsis permits a comprehensive survey of the phosphatases encoded by this organism. Several errors in the sequencing project gene models were found via analysis of predicted phosphatase coding sequences. Structural sequence probes from aligned and unaligned sequence models, and all-against-all BLAST searches, were used to identify 112 phosphatase catalytic subunit sequences, distributed among the serine (Ser)/threonine (Thr) phosphatases (STs) of the protein phosphatase P (PPP) family, STs of the protein phosphatase M (PPM) family (protein phosphatases 2C [PP2Cs] subfamily), protein tyrosine (Tyr) phosphatases (PTPs), low-M(r) protein Tyr phosphatases, and dual-specificity (Tyr and Ser/Thr) phosphatases (DSPs). The Arabidopsis genome contains an abundance of PP2Cs (69) and a dearth of PTPs (one). Eight sequences were identified as new protein phosphatase candidates: five dual-specificity phosphatases and three PP2Cs. We used phylogenetic analyses to infer clustering patterns reflecting sequence similarity and evolutionary ancestry. These clusters, particularly for the largely unexplored PP2C set, will be a rich source of material for plant biologists, allowing the systematic sampling of protein function by genetic and biochemical means.  相似文献   

18.
Zhang XY  Bishop AC 《Biochemistry》2008,47(15):4491-4500
Small molecules that can be used to turn off the activities of specific cellular proteins are essential tools for chemical biology. Few such compounds are known, however, and they are particularly difficult to identify for members of large protein families. Here, we present a method for insertion of a chemical "off switch" into a catalytically essential loop region (the "WPD loop") of a protein tyrosine phosphatase (PTP). Using a combination of point mutations and amino acid insertions, we have engineered variants of T-cell PTP (TCPTP) that possess cysteine-rich WPD loops. The engineered WPD loops, which contain sequences that appear in no wild-type PTP, confer upon TCPTP the ability to bind a cell-permeable small molecule (the biarsenical fluorescein derivative, FlAsH) that is not an inhibitor of wild-type PTPs. We have identified sites in TCPTP's WPD loop that can be modified to display FlAsH-binding cysteine residues without disrupting TCPTP's inherent PTP activity, as assayed with either small-molecule or phosphorylated-peptide PTP substrates. Upon addition of the FlAsH ligand, however, the activities of the mutants drop dramatically. Inhibition of the FlAsH-sensitized TCPTP mutants is rapid and specific; and strong FlAsH sensitivity was observed in mutants that contain as few as two cysteine point mutations in their engineered WPD loops. Our results show that relatively conservative substitutions can be used to engineer precise small-molecule control of PTP activity. Moreover, since all known classical PTPs utilize the WPD-loop mechanism targeted in this study, it is likely that a substantial fraction of the PTP superfamily can be sensitized through an analogous approach.  相似文献   

19.
The exocrine-gland secreting peptide (ESP)gene family encodes proteinaceous pheromones that are recognized by the vomeronasal organ in mice. For example, ESP1 is a male pheromone secreted in tear fluid that regulates socio-sexual behavior, and ESP22 is a juvenile pheromone that suppresses adult sexual behavior. The family consists of multiple genes and has been identified only in mouse and rat genomes. The coding region of a mouse ESP gene is separated into two exons, each encoding signal and mature sequences. Here, we report the origin and evolution of the ESP gene family. ESP genes were found only in the Muridea and Cricetidae families of rodents, suggesting a recent origin of ESP genes in the common ancestor of murids and cricetids. ESP genes show a great diversity in number, length, and sequence among different species as well as mouse strains. Some ESPs in rats and golden hamsters are expressed in the lacrimal gland and the salivary gland. We also found that a mature sequence of an ESP gene showed overall sequence similarity to the α-globin gene. The ancestral ESP gene seems to be generated by recombination of a retrotransposed α-globin gene with the signal-encoding exon of the CRISP2 gene located adjacent to the ESP gene cluster. This study provides an intriguing example of molecular tinkering in rapidly evolving species-specific proteinaceous pheromone genes.  相似文献   

20.
P James  B D Hall  S Whelen  E A Craig 《Gene》1992,122(1):101-110
In higher eukaryotic organisms, the regulation of tyrosine phosphorylation is known to play a major role in the control of cell division. Recently, a wide variety of protein tyrosine phosphatase (PTPase)-encoding genes (PTPs) have been identified to accompany the many tyrosine kinases previously studied. However, in the yeasts, where the cell cycle has been most extensively studied, identification of the genes involved in the direct regulation of tyrosine phosphorylation has been difficult. We have identified a pair of genes in the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae, which we call PTP1 and PTP2, whose products are highly homologous to PTPases identified in other systems. Both genes are poorly expressed, and contain sequence elements consistent with low-abundance proteins. We have carried out an extensive genetic analysis of PTP1 and PTP2, and found that they are not essential either singly or in combination. Neither deletion nor overexpression results in any strong phenotypes in a number of assays. Deletions also do not affect the mitotic blockage caused by deletion of the MIH1 gene (encoding a positive regulator of mitosis) and induction of the heterologous Schizosaccharomyces pombe wee1+ gene (encoding a negative regulator of mitosis). Molecular analysis has shown that PTP1 and PTP2 are quite different structurally and are not especially well conserved at the amino acid sequence level. Low-stringency Southern blots indicate that yeast may contain a family of PTPase-encoding genes. These results suggest that yeast may contain other PTPase-encoding genes that overlap functionally with PTP1 and PTP2.  相似文献   

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